The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield
by L33t Horo
Summary: Emiya Shirou is sent to another world, his only culprit is Zelrtech, now he is Partnered up with Naofumi the Shield hero, how will life be for them now?
1. Chapter 1

**The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield**

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Author notes: This Shirou is one from the best Happy End as well as after Chaldea when he became a Demi Servant of his own ancestor.

Basicaly this Shirou is an amalgamation of every and any possible Shirou Emiya there is (Yes,that includes the alter one, he seems like he was the result of the Super Hero end in the VN, at least from what I could gather)

**Chapter 1: The Summoning**

I was at a loss for words, I was in London with Rin as I was making a meal for her, Saber and myself. Now for some reason I was in a rather large audience hall, next to me where 4 other persons, all 4 where boys around highschool/college age and looked as confussed as me as well.

This is not the first time I was summoned or would be summoned.

I was someone who became/would become a heroic spirit sometime in the future. However, that would be after my death so I could ascend into the throne of heroes, so this is the first time I would be summoned when alive. Blame Zelretch for me knowing this, there are WAY too many Emiyas.

I readied over 10 blueprints of swords into the front of my mind in case things got violent. My time at the Clock Tower as well as working for the Church shown me to be most cautious and had already seen potential scape routes.

The people around looked confused as well and then I noticed it, the 4 others had in their hands weapons, well 3 of them did, one had a small shield, however as soon as I saw it, I saw the potential of them as well as their drawbacks.

All 4 weapons got recorded into Unlimited Blade Works as I saw the 2 most important looking people in the audience hall besides than many priests and probably nobles looking at us aghast. Apparently there was to be only 4 heroes and I was an unexpected extra. I could hear the murmurs of the audience with my reinforced senses.

One was a regal old man with ostentatious decorations and beside him a red haired woman who claimed that the 4 other boys where the heroes and had been called to protect this world from a catastrophic event named the waves.

As for the one I pegged as a king and the red haired female that looked like his daughter, looked at the 4, I noticed the look of disgust and hatred towards the one with the Shield, albeit they hid it well, but after dealing with the fake priest, Gilgamesh and Archer I learned to pick those things up. Not only that but due to the weapon hanging by her hip I was able to confirm who she really was.

After introducing themselves and pleaded to the 4 after which they accepted as they had nothing else, as after their services where no longer needed they would, supposedly, send them back home. Or rather, they HAD to fight to go back. Of course not without asking for compensation for their services.

The people flocked towards the ones with the spear, the sword, and the bow, while the one with the Shield was left all alone.

"_It is no wonder, if they form a party they look for someone with attack capabilities, however they seem to forget that a weapon is useless if you are dead_" I thought to myself as I remember the many times I got saved by Rho Aias and how Gudao was saved by his Pettit demi-servant Mash.

The princess (who hid this fact, but was clear to my eyes as I saw the history of her weapon) Melty was about to speak, however I moved towards the one with a shield. "I am Emiya Shiro and you?"

"Naofumi Iwatani, thanks for joining me" he said sincerely grateful to have someone join him.

Then she smiled to all, however her smile did not reach her eyes when she saw Naofumi and now myself.

Then came to address the elephant in the room. Myself. There was whispering that I had no such thing as a legendary weapon or some rot.

The king asked the priests for answers, only 4 heroes should have been summoned, yet a 5th person was here as well.

The priests were befuddled, as they have done the ritual as it was written, there was a slight disturbance but they soldiered on, as it would be quite catastrofic to fail at summoning them, they could been dispersed to lord knows where, even by a active volcano or something. Not only that but they had gone and did the summining of all heroes in here, rather than each country summoning a hero, something that was ordered by the queen, the true ruler.

However they disobeyed as a way to convert the 3 heroes into their puppets, just give them the information they needed and obscuring anything that did not suit this kingdom human supremacy center ideology.

They had no idea how it had happened, as it was only 4 heroes, and it has been that way from the time this ritual was set. I was bound the same way the other 4 were, I could (supposely) go back home, once the waves are stopped.

I had my own suspicions on how this came to be, mainly one culprit that had the ability to manipulate and travel through parallel worlds, one that was an unrepentant prankster who had a longer life than common sense.

I played dumb and said I would help Naofumi and that way I would earn my keep as the kid had no clue what was going on and had 0 experience in combat from what I could see.

To me Naofumi was like myself when I got thrown to the deep end of the pool called the holy Grail war whole not knowing how to swim.

She asked on joining us, as her fire magic would surely benefit us, or so she claimed. She said it was a pitty that the shield only had a single other person who was a civilian.

I could smell the fire magic from her as well as what I found out was wind, it (her fire magic) had a rather strong intensity, however I had my reservations about her but the young guy accepted her.

The spear hero was rather angry that Naofumi accepted the girl and that I was foolish to go with Naofumi, that I should go with the others as they had offensive combat abilities and could keep me safe.

Should I laugh or be angry I wonder?

I simply raised my eyebrow, they had no idea what I can do, nor did they have any experience fighting beings of the level of Servants or even Dead Apostles, or even the beasts of Gaia.

I shot him down and I was mocked and given pitiful looks, but I knew I done the right choice, this kid… he was just too kind.

He was naive and trusting.

I did not wish to see that broken by these people, if I could, I would at least protect him from the worst and if not train him so he can stand on his own when Rin manages to find me.

With a bag of silver coins we went to town, looking for lodgings, it was hard for me as I could not understand the language, however Naofumi could.

I knew it was due to his shield, also I noted that no one bothered to explain to him anything about the sacred weapon he held, with it we slowly began to learn the language so reading wouldn't be a problem for either once we find someone to teach us.

We booked a two single rooms at a local Inn as to lessen expenditure and then we asked for a blacksmith. Me and Naofumi would share a room and the princess in hidding could have her own room, as it wouldn't do to have a lady with 2 unknown males, heroes or not.

The owner of the blacksmith/weapon shop greeted us, he was a rough looking man with a black beard and a bald head, he had several scars that looked like it came from fighting monsters, he welcomed us heartily and introduced himself as Erhard and we began to examine his wares, I felt like a kid in a candy store as I recorded everything of value in Unlimited Blade Works, most of these swords were just regular ones, but there were a fair few that could be low grade Noble Phantasm to a high grade mystic codes.

The princess asked Naofumi to pick the sword up and try it.

Naofumi wanted to get a sword but I quickly stopped him from making a painful mistake. "You can't use it… your shield will not allow it." I told him as I held his hand before he grabbed the sword.

"Eh?! what do you mean?" Naofumi asked in shock.

"Your shield is special, it won't let you use anything other than itself, if you equip any weapon the Shield will punish you by shocking you" Shirou said.

"Oh man… how am I supposed to fight and get stronger?" Naofumi lamented.

I heard the princess tsk angry her plan failed.

"I recommend buying some armor, due to the shield's inherent defensive properties." I explained.

The man in the counter whistled "You got a good eye there, how did you know about the shield's lore?"

Naofumi blinked, that was right! even he did not know and no one bothered to tell him.

"That is not important, however I will need some armor as well, for my friend maybe an armor that has high defensive capabilities while not being too cumbersome, allowing for freedom of movement, while in my case just leather will do, as tough as you can make it." I said, "Just… no red, please" I said with an awkward smile.

As soon as we had finished asking for Naofumi's armor Malty decided to leave, saying she was bored, however the look in her eyes worried me. She was planning something

He gave a look to us and nodded,"Sure thing, give me 16 days and I should have something done by then"

I thanked the man and we both left. "That is the drawback that comes with it" I said telling him about his shield.

This was a huge blow to him, "H-how will I be able to grow and defend myself with just a shield?" He asked.

"How about we do a light training regimen? I will help you learn how to fight and that way you will grow into a capable fighter" I said as to distract him as I grabbed a couple of well made knives.

I paid 10 silver coins and got change back, we left towards an empty pasture and told him to stretch a bit while I did the same.

"Since you use a shield your defensive abilities are rather high, meaning you would need to be attacked critically to even do normal damage." I explained to him, "that also comes with the inherent thinking that you can't attack"

"But, isn't a shield used for defending?" He asked.

"Yes, however you are thinking too narrowly, look at the edges, with enough speed or force you could cut someone, if you sharpened it that is" I explained.

"T-Thats true" he said as if that revelation shocked him.

"Also, the shield can be used to stun enemies by smashing it in their temple… or even as a diversion," I said as I grabbed a round barrel lid.

He got close to Naofumi with the "shield" up.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Look down" I said.

There was a knife that had slid on his side.

"Of course you can't do this, as any other weapon you use would cause your shield to shock you to submittion and use only it, however you still have your legs, a good hit in between someone legs will stun and possibly cripple anyone of the Male variety" I said with a pained grin.

"Now, I will teach you the most important part of battle" I said.

"And that would be?" Naofumi asked.

"Being able to weather killing intent" I said as I unleashed it.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

Shirou was helping me become a greater fighter and then he asked about the most important part of a battle, weathering killing intent.

"What do you-" I stopped mid sentence.

It was heavy, I felt like I was in a sea of syrup, the air was cold, a dark cold presence behind me.

It felt like death was behind me with its scythe at my neck.

My vision began to darken, posibly tunnel vision, my body was shivering and I sweated profusely.

Shirou slowly walked up to me.

slowly, deliberately. It was a normal walk, like someone simply going to the stoee running errands.

I was crying, I was hyperventilating.

And then… it all stopped.

Due to the sudden stop of that oppressive feeling I felt to the floor, like a puppet whose strings got cut.

"Never forget that feeling, until you are able to act like normal even under that oppressive feeling, that is when you will be able to become a fine warrior" Shirou said to me.

"H-How? How can you do that?" I asked in shock, unable to reconcile the God honest fear of death I felt with the kind and easygoing person who joined me.

He simply smiled and said, "Come now, I will teach you some ways to use your shield properly"

And so we began, with the knives he would attack me and then he would instruct me how I should block, how to position the shield as to make attacks slip and be able to counter in one fell swoop as well as training my kinetic vision to be able to catch the movement of fast moving objects, such as projectiles or the like.

We spend many days doing so, and I was growing, it seems that in this world we are quantified and assigned Levels, my level was around 14 while his was, unreadable?

It looked like a bug to be honest "**#$%?!€£¥₩ **"

In the display it said his name "Emiya Shirou" as a member of my party as well as a title "Hero of Wrought Iron"

And rather than SP he had a different bar that said OD.

I blinked at that. Why that title, I was told there were only 4 heros.

Shirou was an enigma. He was a GREAT fighter, even the blacksmith guy told me so, "he has a presence, and he knows how to pick his steel" he said.

Also… this guy, he knew how to cook.

He had appropriated the kitchen at the Inn we were staying and cooked such a delicious meal that the Innkeeper made a deal to give us a discount if Shirou cooked.

Every day we would have an intense physical training as he taught me throws and grapples and how to use my shield in both offence and defence, then we had the psychological part as he subjected me to killing intent, I would still freeze at it, but at least I could now be able to act after a few seconds. "You need to be able to fully resist it, but as you are now I supposed that is all we can do," he said.

He said that it was mostly because I realised that it was training and wouldn't be lethal. I had to agree even if I did not fully believe it as it felt very much dangerous.

After a 20 minute break we went back to combat training.

It was really something, Shirou would see any and all openings and exploit them, he would hit me with the handle of the knife rather violently "since we can't use killing intent it would be better to have you fear pain"

It made sense in a twisted way.

Still, when I tried it on him I simply got my ass handed to me.

The sound of metal on metal, of steel against steel, it made such a charming music as my efforts where paying off.

After I had sufficiently leveled up I decided to go hunting for monsters.

The whole thing seemed like a MMORPG for me, every one had an HP/SP and level

The first monsters we fought were called Balloons.

It took a while but I managed to kill them, who knew a shield could hold an edge?

"Many old stories tell tales of heroes who used shield for both offence and defence… I mean, if you know Greek mythology the greatest example would be the story of the hero Ajax and his shield" Shirou said with a smug grin.

To be honest I was a bit of a NEET… save for one E… as I had employment, but it was mostly as a freeter. I spend most time playing games and reading. Training with Shirou was the first time I ever done such strenuous activity. My muscles were sore as high heaven, Shirou had to carry me back to the Inn

I got hit a lot but due to the high defense stats that was given by the shield, the damage was merely scraps, both Shirou and myself had become rather well known to most people and they even greeted us warmly and Shirou would go out of his way to help anyone who required his help.

He was weird, he never asked for anything in return, however even if it was weird it was part of him and he was kind.

However good things don't last.

It was on the 3rd week… when **she** and her **father** made me taste hell.

That **bitch** and **trash**.

Chapter end

Author Notes 2: Hello everyone I am back with a new crossover, hopefully I gotten things better than before, pardon my making it short but I hope it suffices for now, the reason I have been AWOL is due to my mental health, I am suffering from severe clinical depression on top of my slight case of autism, also I am working on my original light novel, as well as working on my YouTube channel "Haseo's Animation"

If you wish to please send encouragements and review my new fic, thank you very much for reading my works and have a good day.


	2. Chapter 2

**The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield**

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Replies to comments:

Yes, Naofumi's party will follow cannon somewhat, Raphtalia will be introduced, as to why? the reason will be shown on this chapter, also she will help Naofumi in ways Shirou could not. Also the shield harem must be fed XD and I do NOT like BL.

Chapter 2: Falling, but not alone

**P.O.V Naofumi**

My name is Naofumi, and to be honest I was a bit concerned. I went to a local bookstore to indulge myself on reading when I accidentally came into a rather strange book. Its title "The Record of the Four Holy Weapons" further piquing my interest.

When I looked forward to learning of the last hero, there was nothing but blank pages.

As I was about to leave the book back in place a burst of light blinded me.

It was when I opened my eyes

I was now in a large audience hall, along with 4 others, one was a tall and handsome man with blonde hair, the other one was another boy like myself with black hair and a younger one with curly blonde hair. Lastly was another who had red hair.

While myself and the 3 others where confused the last seemed… resigned?

He was actively looking at the people and looking around, his eyes darting and taking in the area around him.

He then took a glance at the weapons we were holding, he sighed and shook his head as he smiled.

After the red haired adventurer girl and the king introduced themselves and made their pleas to save their world from the waves of calamity.

Each of the 3 other guys with weapons introduced themselves, the pretty boy looking one was Motayasu and he had a spear, Ren, the other black haired male had the sword and the curly blonde one was Itsuki, who held the bow.

After they formed their parties and I was left alone, I felt alienated as everyone made a distinct effort to stay away from me, however the red haired guy came over to my side, much to my relief.

The female adventurer asked him to reconsider, and even Motayasu urged him to reconsider and got mad at him for declining the female adveturer help. However I later accepted her to the party.

He just brushed off his concern and pulled me in.

He then warned me of the adventurer girl and her father and the looks they have been sending out way.

I did not notice it as I was taken back by the ordeal, but the more I pushed myself… the more I began to see the tiny cracks on her façade. However, I made a mistake. I decided, after much of her insistence, to accept her help.

It has been around 3 weeks when I finally caved in and decided to accept her. Shirou, that was the red haired guy's name by the way, sighed but smiled warmly at me.

After our successful hunt it was decided that we should go and rest in the Inn.

The first thing that I should have noticed that something was off was that the owner of the Inn was gone, in her place there was a man now who looked at me and Shirou with a strange look in his eyes, as the lady was brought out and the man now owned the Inn.

It was night when I was woken rather suddenly.

Shirou had a blade in his hand and motioned me to come to his side. He stood on the other side of the door, meaning that the door opened to the left, therefore he and myself where on the right.

6 soldiers came bursting in, saying we are under arrest for the rape of the adventurer Malty.

Which was impossible due to me and Shirou sharing a room while she had her own. Not only that but we didn't even spend much time together either, she used to leave when Shirou took me to train while she said she was going to go shopping or the like.

The soldiers looked around in a cursory manner and found no one, Shirou moved stealthily and took me with him.

"We need to run, as I expected, that woman was trouble, you should have heeded my warning" Shirou chastised me, however it was just somewhat not mean, as if this was something he would have done himself as well.

We managed to get to the old man's store and asked him to let us stay a while and explained to him the situation.

He was livid, no… he was beyond furious! That woman had come earlier this day and asked him to give the items I had commissioned from him and then gave it to someone else,the spear hero, he was furious not only cause she lied to him, but had scammed a nice costumer of his. Erhard was a man who was quite adept at reading people and his first impression of the two in front of him was that they were nice and honest people. He would be dammed I he let his costumers get a bad rap for something they did not do.

"Can you make something for him and keep it until we come back?" Shirou asked

"Uhmm… I do have an armor he could use, but it's not the best materials, I poured a lot of effort on that one that the little minx stole from me" Erhard said feeling furious at this.

Thankfully Shirou was the one who had the bag of silver coins so our money was still safe, however the soldiers were still looking for us.

"This is not good, Erhard will be in trouble if they come and find us" Shirou said.

That is true, I couldn't let someone get into hot water because of me… this is my fault… but what can I do?

"Erhard, do you have any rope?" Shirou said.

"What do you-?"

"Make it like you captured us, they will surely give you a reward, use that to make a better armor for Naofumi, think of it as the crown paying you" Shirou said.

Erhard eyes widened in shock.

"Are you craz-"

"No… he is right" I said, " It would be wrong of us to bring bad business to you… this way you will not be thought of as a helper and will leave you alone. Is what you are also thinking, right?" Naofumi said with a pained smile.

"Unfortunately that is true… we could fight our way out, but that would add more oil to the fire" Shirou said.

Then Erhard bound our hands, however he made the knot so if something unsavory happened we could break free quite easily.

"Hey! Guards! Over here!" Erhard called out, as he was fuming inwardly at this.

"what?! don't make me waste my time,I got a serious work capturing the 2 assailants" he said as he looked around the darkness.

"Well you can rest up" Erhard said as he gritted his teeth "Cause I caught em"

The soldier looked a bit taken back "I-Is that so? then please hand them over" he said.

"Gold speaks louder than words" Erhard said.

The soldier grumbled as he pulled a bag with 120 gold coins, and so both Shirou and myself got sent to the dungeon to await till morning.

**The next day**

Shirou and I woke up and were dragged and thrown into the floor in front of us was the court and the 3 other heroes.

Motayasu was wearing the armor that was to be mine as Malty explained she came running to him cause I had tried to rape her.

WHAT?!

Shirou just looked at them all, he was calm and collected.

The others spat accusations at me and called me the worst things imaginable.

It was then when I looked around and saw the princess sticking her tongue out… mocking me.

"You are the worst"

"Scum"

"trash"

My rage was burning, and the princess mocked me more and more.

"I can prove his innocence" Shirou said.

Malty rose an eyebrow at this.

"I have an item that will force anyone to speak the truth under it" Shirou said "If she speaks the truth, it will come out"

"HOW DARE YOU QUESTION LADY MALTY'S INTEGRITY!" Motoyasu screamed as he put himself in front of her pointing his spear at him. His eyes ablaze in fury and rage.

Shirou did not blink even when the spear was a mere few inches away from his chest.

"I see… so you 3 are rather stupid uh?" Shirou said.

"WHAT?!" Itsuki said as he bared his teeth at him, his hand tensed as he readied himself to attack at the slight to him.

"If you don't want us, then just send us home," I said.

"Trying to run away uh? can't even affront the crimes you committed?" Motayasu said.

"Allegedly, as you have no proof" Shirou pointed out.

"Look at her! she is trembling in fear!" he said.

"wrong, she is holding her laughter in, you all are but mere puppets to her" Shirou said as he stood up.

"Get the fuck back down!" a soldier said as he hit Shirou, however it did nothing. The guard gasped at this.

"While I would like to send you back, I am afraid the waves prevent me from doing so" The king said looking at me and Shirou with open hostility. Damn, he was right all along. "The heroes can only leave either once they defeated the waves, or they die meaning we would have to call the next iteration"

Thankfully Shirou left the bag of silver with Erhard for safekeeping, so should they managed to get out, they would at least have some funds.

However, they took the most important thing away from us… our reputation.

"You, however are not one of the 4 heroes, so should you desire to prove yourself to us…" The king said.

"I refuse, I rather stay with him, at least he is honest and not an idiot who blindly believes any lies and shyes themselves from the truth" Shirou said.

"Then your punishment as an accessory to the rape of my dear daughter is death… heroes, please dispatch him posthaste" the king said as he waved his hand dismissively.

It happened so fast.

The 3 of them went to kill Shirou!

It was akin to a dance.

I could not beleive what I saw, and I was a witness to it.

Motayasu, charged in with a smile as he tried to pierce Shirou's chest with no regrets, Shirou sidestepped his charge and then he broke Motoyasu's leg with a kick, a sickenning crunch could be heard, Ren charged from the side, he swung his sword with a powerful downward strike, only to have his shoulder dislocated with the handle of the knife that Shirou had managed to make appear from nowhere as we had been disarmed beforehand and thouroughly searched and then threw him into the opposing wall and Itsuki, as he started to pull his knocked arrow to shoot at him, had his dominant hand pierced to a wall as he screamed bloody murder as he had tried to shoot at him, his arrow now laying uselessly on the floor and the knife all the way up to the handle.

It was incredible, all 3 heroes got defeated in an instant. So effortlessly.

The people that witnessed such thing where agast. None more than the King and his daughter.

"Don't be so naive as to think I will let myself be punished with baseless accusations, my other self may have been content but not I" Shirou said.

I did not understand what he meant by that.

The king took a step back at the intensity of Shirou's eyes. He glared at him with the outmost hatred.

"Very well, but now you will be a Parriah in my kingdom, same as the Shield hero" he said with rage. "No one shall accept you, yet you Shield hero,you are still bound to serve… in a months time the wave will come and you shall fight"

Shirou then looked at his staff… and smiled "Is it really you who should be saying those things?"

The king rose an eyebrow "What do you-"

"Your wife would be quite-"

"SILENCE! HOW DARE **YOU**?! I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO KILL YOU BOY… BUT DIE YOU WILL… WHEN THE WAVES KILL YOU ALL WILL BE BACK TO NORMAL" he said as he said so enraged and spitting saliva.

Even Malty was taken back and was shocked at what Shirou had said.

"I see… then I will dp my outmost to survive until I meet with her," he said. "Remember that I will make you beg for forgives, as I am a man of my word"

Shirou put his arm around my neck and pulled me away, as the guards opened a path, as they saw him thoroughly manhandle the 3 heroes with little effort using but a simple knife They did not wish to be on the receiving end of that asskicking.

I was furious, how could those 3 just believe those lies?! and how could they blame Shirou as well, I don't know him for long but even I learned that he is a respectable man, someone even I could look up to.

And now… because of me… because of me he is now.

A ringing pain washed my cheek, it actually hurt disregarding my high defence and it snapped me back to reality, Shirou was looking at me with sad and kind eyes.

"You couldn't have known it would end like this, it's not your fault, I should have warned you better, let's go… we need to prepare as we only have a month more and we are gonna need to get our hands in more gold than we were originally given" He said as he walked to the old man's store.

He came to greet us promptly, he was furious on our behalf and asked to take the gold he was given "I can't take no dirty money… take it or I am gonna have to sock you" he said forcing the gold onto me. "Also… here, use this, it will do until I finish that commission I had… no, scratch that, I am gonna make you a better one just to spite that wrench"

I was taken back by his attitude but I was thankful nonetheless.

**The next day**

Many of the townsfolk where glaring and gossiping about us, I wanted to punch those assholes, I was told by Shirou to not show my anger to them, they had no idea what really happened, but to channel that anger towards those 2. That bitch and her father.

With that said we headed into the dungeons and I begun to train, it was hard but thanks to Shirou I learned how to fight much more efficiently. However between the 2 of us would not be enough… I was deadweight compared to him, so I needed someone else, someone who will not betray or backstab me.

And so I conferred to him "While I dislike the notion, I understand the necessity, so long as you treat them humanely I have no qualms"

That- that was quite Salominic and pragmatic way of thinking.

I had learned that when Shirou fought the monsters and left them for me to kill I got a pittance of experience, and when I tried to do it on my own I took too long to kill any. It took 3 hours to kill mob level characters on my own. But if Shirou helped me I would only get a pittance of EXP.

That meant I needed someone other than Shirou to help me kill them.

"But seriously how stupid are those weapons… if any legendary weapon hero fought alongside the others none would get any EXP, shouldnt it be in reverse? They had to learn to work together" Shirou said as he sighed exasperatedly.

And so we entered a slave trader shop.

We had about 200 gold coins in total, he sat down as he looked around in case any monster I could not handle on my own and we managed to unlock new forms for my shield, The Leaf Shield made collecting much easier and thus we managed to sell better stuff, he said to look into my weapon book, I had forgotten about that virtual manual that came with it.

"_wait… how did he know of it?_" I thought as I disregarded it, that did not matter, we had to survive until the waves were over.

We sold our stuff with some difficulty, as the king and princess ordered for all to make our lives as miserable as possible, however with a few well placed balloons in tactical regions I managed to coers-convince… convince the merchant to give me a fair price.

Shirou looked at me as my personality changed a bit.

"Like a distorted mirror" I heard him say at times and chuckles lightly.

The slave trader said that the slaves could never betray you as they would be under a curse, betrayal meant death.

That would be exactly what I was looking for, someone with no funny ideas.

"Let's get this out of the way, if you try to rip me off-" I said

"Yes, I have heard of your infamous balloon punishment, it has been quite the talk for us merchants of both sides" the merchant said with a wry grin.

He showed us a beast-man, this one was level 80… ten times my own.

"This one is severely wounded, he would be no good" Shirou said.

The slave trader made a smirk "You have a keen eye"

"How about you show me slaves that are not broken?" I asked.

"Do you have any preferences? we even have some if you wish to have s-" he said but then saw the look of hatred in me.

"I didn't do it" I said with all the self control I could muster, yet rage seeped out.

He looked at me and nodded. "You do not strike me as the type… that you do, let's see what we can do for you"

He showed me the cheapest ones he had, as I was trying to get the best with the least amount of coins.

For some reason Shirou was holding his arms tightly, as if he was fighting some urge, in a base level I could understand him.

After all, they were children.

One was a rabbit man, the other a raccoon girl and the other a lizard man who looked more man than lizard.

The rabbit man had a genetic disorder that gave him a lame arm, the raccoon girl had panic attacks and the other… he was strong… but not that good, he was level 8 but looked rather… off.

"Get the girl" Shirou said.

I blinked.

She was pitiful and level 1.

"I will take her," I said.

After giving a drop of my blood the placement ritual was done. I paid 31 pieces of silver.

"Sir, you overpaid" the slave dealer said.

"Yes, but you would try to wring me more money for the ritual, would you have not?" I retorted.

"Heh… you got me there" he said with a shrug.

We started to walk off, and called for the slave to come with me. I turned my back on the circus tent.

The slave followed behind me, wearing a miserable look on her face.

"Now then, let's hear your name." I asked

"… Guh..."

She turned her face away and didn't answer.

But that was a stupid thing to do. If the slave disobeyed my orders, she would have to pay. And so the slave punishment curse activated.

"Gu… guhhhh…"

She put her hands on her chest and seemed to be in pain.

"Come on, what's your name?" I asked once more.

"Ra… Raphtalia…" Cough! Cough!

"Raphtalia it is then. Let's go."

She coughed out her name, and the pain faded. She took a moment to recover her breath.

I took her by the hand, and we continued to walk down the back alley.

"…"

Raphtalia looked up at me, her hand in mine. She looked terrified, but we kept on walking…

Shirou then grabbed her and placed her on his back.

"Did you have to do that?" Shirou asked.

"I didn't… it happened because she did not wish to talk" I said.

"Still… if she doesn't want to answer, don't force her, remember, she isn't Malty" Shirou said.

I curled up my hands as even hearing her name set my hatred ablaze.

I...Understand" I said as he was right, this was not like me, but I knew I could not change.

I was broken.

And once broken, even if you put the pieces back together, it will never look nor be the same.

We went to the old man once more, Raphtalia was in need of clothes, her current outfit was not one a girl should be wearing and thus asked him if he could sell us gear for her.

"Oh geez…"

We'd gone to the weapon shop, and the owner leaned on the counter and sighed when he saw us come in with Raphtalia.

That's right. I want attack power, that's it. If I didn't get some weapons, there would be no point to any of this. Shirou, while a great help, was unable to help me gain EXP due to what I assume was a glitch.

"Give me a weapon that this girl can use. Keep it under 6 pieces of silver."

"… Hmph," the owner sighed again. "I don't know if the country is wrong, or if you've just gone rotten. Whatever. 6 pieces of silver, right?"

"Yes. And do you have any other clothes or capes back there?"

"… Sure. You can have 'em for free."

The owner muttered quietly to himself as he laid some knives out on the counter.

Shirou inspected the knives and chose the absolute best one, even Erhard was taken back, however Shirou explained their situation more in-depth.

"I see… yeah, that makes sense," he muttered, he saw we had no choice in the matter, at least he was sure the girl would not be in any danger with these 2.

Once on the field he taught Raphtalia how to use the knife. Slowly he began teaching her the basics as he made a new knife appear from nowhere.

**P.O.V Shirou**

I was rather angry at this development, all those slaves… but we could only get 1 as to not raise suspicion.

However I would help this girl grow, her eyes… reminded me of how I was when Kiritsugu found me in the fire.

This is a way of atonement I suppose. As well as penance.

To teach her to use a knife… there was one servant who was good at it.

The alternate self of my father.

The one who became a counter guardian.

Servant Assassin Emiya.

I traced his knives and begun to teach her how to move and how to grab the knife, where to attack and how to retreat, we trained for a little over an hour. It was then when her stomach began to growl.

Naofumi also was hungry as well so we decided to freshen up in the river and go for a meal.

The place we went to was owned by the old lady who used to own the Inn, so we did not get hassled by her or her family, however some patrons looked at us and begun to speak ill if Naofumi and Raphtalia, due to her being a demi-human.

The old lady however kicked them out, and was unapologetic, Naofumi looked somewhat thankful and was able to eat.

He ordered a kid's meal for her and we both ordered something else and he began to slowly eat, as the rage inside him eroded his taste buds somewhat, making things feel bland, but at least when he ate here or Shirou's cooking could he taste anything.

"W…Why?" she asked

"Hm?"

Raphtalia said something, so Naofumi looked down at her. She was looking up at him with that confused look back on her face. He supposed she thought it odd that he'd feed her a real meal, considering that she was a slave.

"You looked like you wanted to eat it. You want something else?" he said.

She shook her head.

"How come you're… feeding me?"

"You are his slave, but also his partner, if you are weak you will be no help for him… so eat, hunger is the enemy" I said as I quoted something Saber had said to me before.

"Here you are," said the waitress, bringing our meals. She set the kid's lunch down before Raphtalia, and a bunch of bacon in front of Naofumi.

"…"

Raphtalia was staring down at her meal.

"Aren't you going to eat it?" I asked

"… Can I?"

"Yes, you can. Hurry up. Eat it while is hot" I said with a kind smile.

I smirked as she ate as her race would in my world… like a little messy raccoon.

We took Raphtalia the next day to train, Naofumi took the balloons that he had in his persons and told her to stab them.

She refused as she began to hyperventilate and the curse started to bring her pain… then finally she stabbed it and killed it.

She got 1 EXP, slowly we repeated the process until Naofumi got a new shield.

"Red small shield" that gave him a +4 to his defence.

He immediately changed the shield into its newest form. Raphtalia was amazed by the process.

"How did you… Just what ARE you, Master?" she asked in awe.

Didn't she know he was the Shield Hero? Well, she was a demi-human, and a slave on top of that.

"I'm a hero. The Shield one." Naofumi said.

"Hero? You mean like one of the four Holy Things?"

"You know about it?" Shirou asked.

She nodded.

"That's right. I'm one of the summoned heroes. But I'm the weakest one!"

Naofumi chewed on his nails during his announcement. Just thinking of the others filled him with murderous rage.

Noticing his anger, Raphtalia was suddenly upset, so he decided not to continue the story any further.

"Anyway, the plan for today is to take on the monsters in these woods. I'll hold them down, you stab them, if we bite more than we can chew he will bail us out." Naofumi said pointing at me as I waved cheerfully.

"O…kay." she said hesitantly.

Maybe she was getting used to us. She answered much quicker than usual.

We worked our way through the forest, and every time we encountered an enemy, Naofumi would lure its attention, grab it, and Raphtalia would stab it from behind.

Soon enough, we came upon something besides balloons.

Loomush.

It was white, something like a mushroom, and hopped around. It had narrow, squinting eyes, and stood about as tall as a person.

Naofumi tried hitting it, but he had the same luck as he had with the balloon.

So he had Raphtalia kill it.

We soon came across Bluemushes and Greenmushes.

**Mush Shield: conditions met**

**Blue Mush Shield: conditions met**

**Green Mush Shield: conditions met**

**Mush Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: plant appraisal 1**

**Blue Mush Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: simple recipe 1**

**Green Mush Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: apprenticeship compounding**

None of these abilities were status boosts. They all seemed to be new abilities.

Compounding… That would be useful once he used up the medicine stores we had.

By the end of the day Raphtalia was at level 3, and I had risen to level 13.

Evening fell, and we left the forest to walk along the riverbank.

"Cough…"

She was sick and thankfully Naofumi got a new shield that helped him craft medicines, he tested them on her and alleviated her a bit.

The worst, however, came at night.

The poor thing began to scream, she was having nightmares.

It was then when I told Naofumi to try and console her while I protected them from monsters attracted due to her screaming.

"Don't order her to shut up, it will have an adverse effect, rather hold her and let her cry on you and that will also muffle the sound somewhat" I said.

Naofumi grumbled but pulled her tight, as he began to stroke her head, slowly she began to calm down. Her screams and cries slowly going down to sobs.

It seems this little girl had a horrible story behind her.

I volunteered to keep watch as the two went back to sleep.

"Kinda wish there was instant coffee in this world" I joked.

It was a rough first night, but they managed to get some sleep, once they woke I decided to take a nap to recharge somewhat and also to check something out.

"trace… on"

I turned on the channels where odic power travel around, all 27 of them and saw that they were all working as normal, structural grasping worked as usual as I tested it the second I saw the holy weapons and tracing… that gave me quite a surprise. Due to this world's rules, magecraft had little to no restriction and thus it cost less to use and lasted much longer. It was quite a pleasant surprise as I always had trouble with the use of my od and the consumption issues of my magecraft.

Perfect, no downsides and my magecraft consumption has decreased, meaning I could use higher tier weapons a bit more freely while keeping my reinforcement up.

I decided to trace the sword from Ren and managed to perfectly recreate it.

It was not a Divine construct, but was rather close. It's abilities, along with the others, could be troublesome. They could absorb weapons and materials and change and evolve to attain new forms and skills for their wielders.

They were powerful, but that came with the downside of being locked to that particular weapon. Sure, I could probably cheat on that by using self hypnosis and belief that "I am not attacking with the spear, I am merely swinging it at a random location" but that seemed a waste, I preferred to be able to use a particular weapon that suits my current needs.

We continued the next day, as she had a many freak out, she was scared of killing living things, however between Naofumi and myself we managed to a nap her out and got her to kill it.

We went to eat and she looked rather hungry… and… was it my imagination or she seemed… taller?

Time passed and finally her knife broke and we had to get a better weapon for her. Due to now being used to kill actual living monsters, meant that the blood of them had corroded her blade and dulled enough to finally break,as neither had any idea on upkeep of weapons,It was then, while at the old man's shop when Naofumi accidentally unlocked a new shield that automatically sharpened any weapon.

I asked the old man to sell us a nice short sword, as she seemed to have grown and would be good to have a weapon with more attack power and slightly stronger body.

He nodded as he accepted my input and got a steel short sword for her.

We decided to go into a dungeon with slightly stronger monsters, we asked Erhard for tips on where to go and decided to go there, as well we had a chance to mine for some ore and increase our little war chest.

When we got there we delved for 10 minutes and found a treasure chest, inside was an old pickaxe, a map of the mine/dungeon, and some rope that was in a bad state.

Naofumi's shield absorbed the pickaxe and rope and evolved further. he was able to find mineral deposits and get to them faster, while the rope could be used as a grappling hook and to bind enemies and the like.

Shirou told him that even if it had a lower defense value, it had a rather BIG strategic value.

Raphtalia and myself became bodyguards for Naofumi as he went and mine for rare ores.

As we continued our adventure it was decided that I would not be in the party as to help Raphtalia out, I will do the most harm if a monster was too strong for her and let her kill it herself and would therefore gain a lot of EXP.

This did not work for Naofumi for some reason.

He managed to get light metal ore, and his shield changed as well, one that gave him a stronger defense oriented shield.

He managed to get a pipe which got absorbed and got a shield that had a trap ability, "prison shield" among many others that helped prevent negative status effects and simple weapon restoration.

He managed to defeat a porcupine, and obtained the needle shield which had attack capabilities, however meager as it where.

As they kept fighting to level up I had a passive approach and just injured the monsters enough to protect them.

Naofumi, however got injured once,and tried to assure Raphtalia that he was fine.

However she was worried and we told her that we have armor commissioned so we just had to wait.

"if it isn't our little Shield Hero and friends. It's been a week."

Whenever we went back to Castle Town, we only visited the area of town with the shops.

The weapon shop owner was, for whatever reason, staring at Raphtalia in surprise, I was also feeling a bit awkward.

"It's been a while, so maybe my memory has failed me… but you have certainly grown into a fine young woman, haven't you?"

"Huh?" Naofumi said as he did not understood what Erhard meant.

Seems like Naofumi had no idea what he was talking about. The old guy was talking nonsense.

"Yeah, and you've filled out a little too. You were all skin and bones the last time I saw you."

"Hey now, watch how you say that!"

Raphtalia was rubbing her hands together and laughing as she answered.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

Ugh, that attitude would drive me nuts. It reminded me of her... that bitch.

"Gahahaha! You really raised her to be cute." the old man said.

"Raised her? She just leveled up."

A week ago, she'd been at level 10, but now she was at level 25. I suppose the levels were having an impact on her appearance.

"Huh… you're not so friendly anymore, are you kid?" the old man said to me.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Anyone would look at her and see a cute girl of ten or so. I had been giving her good food lately, so she had put on a little weight, I guess.

She was always complaining about being hungry, so whenever we killed a monster, Shirou woukd cook up some of its meat for her. I even worried about the nutritional balance, so I asked him to try to use as many herbs and vegetables as I could when we cooked her meat.

The old guy seemed to be in a really chipper mood.

Maybe I could use that to get a discount on our equipment.

Keep buttering him up there, Raphtalia.

"So, what can I do you for today?"

"We were looking to get some equipment." I said, pointing at Raphtalia. She suddenly scowled, and grabbed my shoulders.

"Oh? I thought we were here to get equipment for YOU?" she said

"I know, I know. Relax, will you? Why are you freaking out? I said I was waiting for my armor, same as Shirou" I said.

I guess the weapon shop had some agreement with the blacksmith, as I got the materials for a lower price than I had been expecting.

And that guy, too, kept saying how he'd lower the price for me because Raphtalia was so cute, and so charming, and so on. The blacksmith was looking down at her and smiling, and when she noticed she smiled back and waved her hands at him.

It made me want to start a lecture on the Lolita complex, and how prevalent it appeared to be in this world.

"Well, that was easy. We got the stuff." I said as I gave him the remaining items for the armor.

"You're such a hard worker, little Shield-Boy." he said with a smile.

"Sure, but I think that your friends all have a Lolicon. I'd like to point out two or three of them."

"Lolicon? What are you talking about?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You don't know? I thought my shield would translate it for me." I said feeling concussed.

"Nah, I understand. I just don't think I know anyone who falls for little girls." he said shrugging.

"Everyone kept saying they'd lower the price because of how cute Raphtalia is." I said feeling a bit disgusted at the loli lovers.

"Hey now… You mean, you really don't know?" the old man said unable to beleive what he heard.

"Know what?" I asked concussed

"Now, now… No need to go into all that." Raphtalia was vigorously shaking her head.

The old guy sighed heavily, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing, then narrowed his eyes and sent them in my direction.

"I'll have it finished for you by tomorrow. Do me a favor and wait until then."

"That's fast. I figured it would take at least a few days." I said.

"That's how long I take for people I don't know, but you? You're my little Shield Hero." he said with a smile.

"I suppose I should thank you." he said feeling awkward.

Shirou stayed behind as he talked to the old man.

Probably to give him some extra stuff for his own armor.

We went to eat at the restaurant and then we went to the new inn to wait.

**The next day**

The next day, we stopped by the weapon shop.

"Hey, there you are, little Shield Hero." the old man greeted us.

"So, did you finish the armors?" I directly asked.

"Right on, I sure did. Finished them a while ago." he said.

He pulled out a piece of armor from behind the counter.

It looked aggressive and wild. I could see why they called it the Barbarian Armor.

The sleeve holes were lined with fluffy fur, no doubt from the Usapils, and the chest was formed from a heavy looking plate of metal. The parts that were not covered with metal plating were lined with Porcupine skin. I put my hand inside, and found that the interior was formed of two layers of skin, and was stuffed with PikyuPikyu feathers.

"…So I wear this thing?" It looked like something… like something a pirate leader or a gang leader might wear.

The name seemed fitting, and I think it would make me look like a real apocalyptic headhunter.

"What's wrong there, young-in?" he said with a smirk.

"Nothing… It just looks like… something only bad people would wear." I said feeling more awkward due to our, that is mine and Shirou's undeserved reputation.

"Little late to complain about that, isn't it?" the old man said with a smug grin.

What was that supposed to mean? Did it mean that everyone already thought I was the lowest of criminals?

I guess I wasn't in a position to choose my path to money, but this was a little ridiculous.

"I think it will look good on you,Naofumi-sama"

"Raphtalia…shut up." I said feeling down.

She sure was getting loquacious.

"Anyway, hurry up and try it on." Shirou said.

"Ugh… I'd really rather not, but I guess it got made and all… Oh well."

I went into the fitting room and slipped into it.

He had never taken my measurements or anything, but it fit perfectly. I was surprised. The guy really was a pro. He must have judged my size just from looking at me.

I left the fitting room, and stood before the two of them.

"Well, your face seems nice enough, but that armor makes the look in your eyes seem more dangerous."

"What do you mean, 'the look in my eyes'?" I said with a glare.

"That sulky look you've got."

Geez, these people were starting to piss me off.

"I think you look really cool, Naofumi-sama"

Raphtalia was beaming.

I shot her a nasty look.

If she thought she could just do whatever she wanted, she was in for something else…

"And let's not forget about you, while you asked me for no red, well… it has little of it…" he said with a wry grin.

**P.O.V Shirou**

When I saw the armor I was not sure whether to sigh or laugh.

No, it was not Archer's armor, it was something I had not expected.

Assassin Emiya.. a perfect reproduction of his armor.

I went into the fitting room and came out, Naofumi raised an eyebrow and Raphtalia was beaming.

My face was covered and showed only my eyes,but my face was darkened by the red hood it had.

I had a hip holster for the knives but had places to attach for more weapons.

I structural grasped the armor and it had a great protection, but does not inhibit movement, it was light,like it was a shirt or maybe leather, it also had magic protection so my magical resistance got a slight boost.

"So where are you three off to now?" Erhard asked.

"Never mind. It seems like everyone is on edge in town."

"Probably because the waves are coming. But where, and when, will they arrive?" Naofumi asked.

"Huh? You mean you don't know?" he said surprised.

"Know what?" Naofumi asked.

If the weapon shop owner knew and we didn't, that meant that the country really wasn't very serious about staving off the disaster. Naofumi cursed them all under his breath. Then I turned to hear what the guy had to say.

"You know how the kingdom's clock tower faces the general square?" he said.

"I guess so. You mean that building on the edge of town?" Naofumi said as he tried to remember a bit of the landmarks of this town.

"Right. Inside that tower is the Dragon Hourglass. When the sands fall, the four Heroes, and those who fight with them, will be sent to the place of the destruction." Erhard said.

"Is that so? weird, we weren't told about that" I said.

"Weird? please… those assholes want us to die,of course they will keep shut" Naofumi said.

I sighed as what he said was true.

"I don't know when it will be, but you can go look for yourself." he said with a shrug.

"I guess you're right," Naofumi said resigned.

If no one knew when, or where, we would be transported… that seemed like a crappy situation to be in.

Just to make sure, I had better go check it out.

"Later, old man." Naofumi said as he left.

"Sure." he said with a wave

"Bye." Raphtalia said.

We said our thanks, and made for the clock tower.

It was visible from most of the town, but the closer we got, the higher and higher it seemed to grow.

There was a large building, something like a church with a domed roof, and the clock tower extended from the top of the dome. The doors to the building were open, and people came and went as they pleased.

There were women dressed like nuns, and they shot Naofumi dubious glances. They must have heard the rumors.

"You would be the Shield Hero, correct?" They asked.

"Yes. I heard that the time was coming up, so I came to see it myself." Naofumi said.

"Well then, follow me."

She led us deeper into the church, and there in the center was a giant hourglass.

It looked to be around seven meters tall. It was covered in detailed decorations that lent the whole thing a holy, mystical feel.

It made me feel… on edge.

As we looked at it, I noticed this instinctual, powerful shock of emotion running through my body.

The sand was… red.

It was streaming down in silence.

I could tell that it was running out of time.

I heard a high-pitched beep, and a beam of light shot out from Naofumi's shield to illuminate a jewel that was affixed to the center of the hourglass.

Then a small clock appeared in the corner of our field of vision.

**20:12**

We waited a moment and, sure enough, the 12 changed to an 11.

So that's how it worked. It was a way of precisely displaying the time. They wanted us to consider the time when I made our decision.

And yet… if there were only twenty hours left, there was only so much we could do. If we went and picked herbs in the fields, we'd run out of time. But we would probably need some medicine.

"Woah, is that Naofumi?!"

There it was, from the back of the room, a voice I really didn't want Naofumi to listen… but he noticed.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

There was the Spear Hero, Motoyasu, walking over to me, attended by a gaggle of women.

I didn't like the guy. I wanted to kill him, right then and there, but I held myself back.

"Are you getting ready for that wave?"

He sickened me. He sauntered over condescendingly.

"Oh hey, are you still fighting in rags like that?" he said as he pointed at me.

What the hell? Just whose fault did he think that was? It was HIS, and that woman and their plotting.

Motoyasu looked like a completely different person from how he had appeared only one month prior. He was clearly at a higher level, and with much nicer equipment. It wasn't iron, it was shiny, like it was made from silver, and beneath it he was wearing a beautiful crimson set of clothing. It was probably imbued with all sorts of great skills.

Through the breaks in his armor, I could see the chainmail. He was obviously thinking seriously about his defense.

The Legendary Spear had changed as well. No longer some flimsy thing, the new spear looked vicious and powerful, and I had to admit the design was pretty cool. And the tip was… well, it looked sharp.

"…"

It wasn't worth wasting my breath on him. I turned my back on him and the hourglass.

"Hey! Motoyasu-sama is speaking to you! You should listen." a grating voice said.

There it was, the source of all my anger and bloodlust. That woman was speaking out from behind him, sticking her tongue out, mocking me.

I would make her regret it. I had to.

"Naofumi-sama? Who might this be?"

Raphtalia pointed at Motoyasu.

"…"

Instead of answering her question, I opted to leave. I started to walk off.

But as I did, I saw Itsuki and Ren appear in the doorway.

"Geez."

"Ah, Motoyasu and… Naofumi."

Itsuki look instantly annoyed to see us, but quickly recovered his bearings and spoke softly and respectfully.

"…"

Ren said nothing, just stayed cool and kept walking in my direction. He too, looked much stronger than he had the last time I saw him.

They all had a crowd of party members following them around.

However all 3 of them shivered involuntarily once they recognised Shirou, that made me smile.

Suddenly, I noticed that the room containing the hourglass had gotten very crowded.

4+12+2.

There are 4 of us, the summoned heroes. Then the kingdom had supplied 12 adventurers. And then there was Raphtalia and Shirou.

With 18 people in it, the room felt packed and uncomfortable.

"Um…"

"Hey, who's the girl? She's so cute!"

Motoyasu was pointing at Raphtalia. He really had a hankering for the girls, didn't he?

If the heroes themselves were after young girls here, was there any hope for the country at all?

He stuck his nose in the air, sauntered over to Raphtalia, and began to introduce himself.

"Very pleased to meet you, my dear. I am one of the four Heroes summoned to this realm, and my name is Motoyasu. I thought it would be best to make your acquaintance."

"Oh… So you are one of the Heroes?"

He looked deep into Raphtalia's eyes as he nodded.

"And what was your name, little one?"

"Um…"

She looked confused, lost. She turned to catch my eye, then she looked back to Motoyasu.

"Ra…Raphtalia. Please to make your acquaintance."

She was trying to figure out my relationship to them, I could tell. She was sweating.

She was probably thinking of abandoning me and running to Motoyasu's side.

I swear, all I wanted to do was get out of there. How long did I have to stand around and be insulted by these people?

"May I ask for what purpose you have visited this place today? You are wearing rather nice armor, and are gripping a nice sword."

"I need them to fight alongside Naofumi-sama."

"Oh yeah? With Naofumi?"

Motoyasu shot me a suspicious look.

"…What?"

Shirou then stood in front of Raphthalia and stared at Motoyasu, he reminded him of someone he hated… Shinji was the same way as him… and when he learned what he did to Sakura.

"Y… you think you s-scare me? I am nothing like I was last time, I gotten stronger" Motoyasu said as he felt a phantom pain on his now healed leg. However he felt he HAD to show bravado.

Shirou saw it was true… he had gotten stronger, but just that, they had no skill behind their power, Naofumi and Raphtalia had both, but their power was a bit lower than the other heroes, but with the skills they had, they could fully maximise the power they had, they also had much better cooperation then the rest of the other parties as they worked together and worked to polish each other skills.

We decided to go out and gave an 11th hour training.

As we went to the fields I had such seething rage.

It seemed that I want very good at hiding my rage. So Raphtalia decided to attack on her own.

As she finished dealing with the enemies she turned to me.

"… What?"

"Those people we met at the hourglass today… They were Heroes just like you, right?" she asked.

"… Yeah."

I didn't want to think about it. Why remind me, after all the effort I'd put into forgetting it?

"Can you tell me? Just what happened between you all?" she asked with no malice.

I understood her reason… but my emotions did not wish to.

"I don't want to talk about it. If you want to know, just go ask down at the bar or at Shirou"

Even if I told the truth, it's not like anyone would believe me. She wouldn't either. But the biggest difference between them all was that Raphtalia was my slave. If she disobeyed my orders, or tried to run, or to fight me off, then the slave curse would hurt her.

When she realized that I wasn't going to talk about it, Raphtalia stopped asking.

For the rest of the night, until we fell asleep, I kept on making medicines. The wave would be here soon.

Shirou took Raphthalua aside, he had made meals for us and made a bigger one for her as she has been hungrier lately.

**P.O.V Shirou**

As Naofumi laid down to sleep Shirou talked to her.

"Naofumi-san… he is hurting a lot, something bad happened, and I also got dragged into it, he blames himself for being too trusting and causing the problems we both have, so… just keep supporting him until he decides to tell you all by himself, because he is too scared to trust anyone who is not me at the moment" I explained.

Raphtalia looked at me and nodded, I smiled at her and patted her head "Here you go, eat up and then wash up… then go to sleep, I will keep guard"

"Shirou-sama?" she turned towards me,

"Please, continue taking care of Naofumi-sama and myself," she said as she bowed her head.

"Don't worry, I plan to" I said.

"But why? why do this for people you barely know?" she asked.

"Because, it's the right thing to do" I said with a kind smile.

We knew that the first wave would be coming… so this was the last few hours of peaceful rest.

I stayed up, staring at the bonfire.

Chapter end.


	3. Chapter 3

**The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield**

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Replies to comments: to guest replies, Shirou is not doing anything because he believes he will be whisked away, so he is in a passive state… up to now that is.

He will take an active stance due to some reasons. Naofumi is broken more than originally cause it's not only him who got screwed, but also a sincerely nice guy like Shirou who just wanted to help him out. He is feeling a lot of rage at the situation as well as guilt. But more than guilt he feels rage to all of those idiots who have done such a thing, due to then going so far as to try to kill Shirou.

Also, remember that the monsters on the wave are many levels stronger than the ones found on the wild, so his attack with the edge of the shield would still be mediocre at best an annoyance at worst.

Also, there is **no way in hell** Motoyasu would allow anyone to question Malty or bring/cast doubt on her, I mean, I hope you seen or read the anime/manga/LN. Even with the slave array she lied and lied and the idiot still refused to accept reality. He WANTED to have Naofumi be the liar as it did not suit his narrative and how he viewed her.

Hope this explains a bit.

By the way, I am looking for a beta reader for a light novel I am working on,please send me your application via PM or review, this is urgent and real and will also be credited, I wish to have someone point my weak points on my first ever professional writting, thanks a lot.

**Chapter 3: Sword and Shield **(Not a monster hunter reference)

**P.O.V Naofumi**

**00:17**

The wave of destruction would be here in seventeen minutes. Everyone in town must have already known. The knights and adventurers were prepared for battle, and the citizens were locked up in their houses.

Apparently when the clock ran out the heroes, of which I was one, would be instantly transported to the site of the wave. The same magic would affect our party members as well, so Raphtalia and Shirou, who we added so he would be able to participate, would be transported with me.

I chose to use the Light Metal Shield, as it had the highest defense rating so far.

"The wave will be here soon, Raphtalia." I said as I balled my hand.

"Yes!"

She seemed on edge, electrified. She nodded.

At least she was serious about it.

"Naofumi-sama, do you mind if we talk for a minute?"

"Sure, whatever. What's up?"

"It's just that… thinking of the wave and all that, it makes me feel emotional."

What was she getting at? Is she afraid of death or something? Of course I'd be in trouble if she died, so I needed to protect her, but… Geez, maybe I'd read too much manga.

This place wasn't a game, and it wasn't a book. It was all too real.

More than anything else, the other heroes had such good equipment. I didn't even know if I'd be able to stand up to the destruction with the equipment I had.

I might end up hurt.

If I got out of it with just injuries, I suppose that was something to be grateful for. But I might end up dead.

If I did, the people of this world would, no doubt, look at my body and think:

"He got what he deserved."

I needed to stop thinking about it. I wasn't fighting for anyone but myself. I was fighting to stay alive for another month, and to pay back at him for sticking with me, the reason for him being in this situation was due to my own error in judgement.

"We talked about it before, remember? What happened to me before you bought me?" Raphtalia said.

It was awful. To sum it up in a word: hell.

Everyday, someone would be bought, and then returned. It happened to Raphtalia, too.

In the beginning, they'd probably planned to make her a servant. She'd been picked up by a wealthy family. They were probably planning on teaching her all kinds of things.

Then she would cry in the night, cry out at her nightmares. And she'd get returned, just like that.

Her next owner was the same. He started to teach her all these different jobs, but when she started to cry she would be sold off.

The last owner, the one before me, was the worst.

He bought her, beat her to pieces with a rod, and then sold her off.

Then she started to cough, and prepared herself for death, thinking it wasn't far off.

I wasn't at all surprised to hear that there were so many abusive creeps in this world.

She said that just as she was sinking into sickness, just as her nightmares had torn her heart to shreds, just as she had no idea how many more times she'd be bought, that's when I showed up.

"I'm… I feel really lucky to have met you, Naofumi-sama and Shirou-san."

"… Okay."

"Because you both taught me how to live."

"… Okay."

I was tolerating her speech, thinking of it, halfway at least, as a job.

Because I didn't care.

All I cared about was staying alive and making sure I could help Shirou.

"And you two gave me a chance, a chance to face the wave."

"… Okay."

"So I'll do all I can, for you. I am your sword, and I will stay by your side."

"Okay… Do your best."

Afterwards, I realized how rude I'd been. But, at the moment, it was all I was capable of.

"so… "I am your sword" uh?," Shirou said with a smile as he patted Raphtalia's head affectionately, "Keep it up, your words will reach him one day," he said to her.

Shirou closed his eyes… he knew what will happen, the second it reached 00:00.

"I am the bone of my sword"

I heard that phrase from Shirou and then I felt a strange pressure off him.

His demeanor changed, in his eyes, all I could see was steel.

**00:01**

There was only one minute left.

I braced myself, and prepared to be transported.

**00:00**

BOOM!

An enormous sound echoed through the world.

In an instant, the scenery around me changed. I guess we'd been transported.

"The sky…"

The sky was filled with crevices, like a turtle shell, and was stained a terrible, deep red.

"This is…"

I looked around to try and get a sense of my surroundings when I suddenly saw three shadows. And they were followed by twelve people.

It was those damn stogges of heroes.

They had been transported, just like me, so I shouldn't be surprised. But where were they going?

I looked in the direction they were running and also saw huge crowds of monsters surging from the cracks in the sky.

"We are near Riyute!"

Raphtalia had figured out where we were.

"This is a farming town. There are a lot of people here!"

"But the evacuations should…"

Suddenly I returned to myself.

They didn't know where the waves were going to be, so how could they evacuate?

There never was an evaluation plan at all, this… this was stupid!

"Wait a second, you guys!"

They ignored me, and kept running toward the source of the wave.

I saw large clouds of monsters spilling out from the cracks, like baby spiders, and they were all crawling toward the town.

Just then, I saw the other heroes shoot some kind of shining ball up into the sky, though I didn't know what it was.

Maybe it was so the knights could find us.

"Damn! All right, Raphtalia, go to the town! And Shirou"...

As soon as I said that I turned to look at the two companions I had… well one companion and a slave, but he had shot out with a white curved sword that had a ying-yang symbol.

He rushed and sliced at a monster that was rushing our way.

"Uh… compared to the dragon tooth soldiers… they are sorely lacking" Shirou said as he kicked the other one at his side.

I steeled my own resolve.

The people of Riyute had been good to us. They treated me,Shirou and Raphtalia with decency, they took me in, they did not try to rip me off and took the time to discern my true self.

If they all died in the wave, I'd lose sleep over it. I don't care for those who screwed us over, but not these people.

"Okay!"

We ran, but in a different direction than the other heroes.

They decided to fight elsewhere.

"There is a stronger monster to where they went, so I believe that they went to attack the leader of this wave" Shirou said as he parried an attack from a skeleton soldier and slashed at it.

Normally, according to my knowledge of games, both video games and tabletop ones, skeletons were immune to slashing attacks, or did that rule not really apply here?

We arrived at the village at what appeared to be the exact moment that the monsters were starting to wreak havoc.

The knights and adventurers that had beaten us there were fighting back as best they could manage, but it appeared to be futile…The line was faltering and looked like it might break at any moment.

"Raphtalia, help evacuate the villagers."

"But… What will you do?"

"I'll distract them!" I said as Shirou dashed besides me "I will cover you" he said as he cut down a large group of locust type monsters.

We ran for the defense line and jumped right into the thick of it. There was a crowd of monsters, like locusts, and I started attacking them with my shield.

The hits registered with a reverberating, metallic sound, and seemed to do no damage at all.

But they started to take notice of me. It was just like leveling up with Raphtalia.

Shirou threw his sword away and slashed a bunch of locusts. Their bodies littered around dead.

But now.

"Shirou… YOUR SWORD!" I yelled.

He extended his hand and closed it as if he was _grasping _an imaginary blade.

"Trace… on"

A flash of light.

What seemed like a wireframe formed around his hand, and then it was filled out, a Japanese Katana of exaggerated length appeared.

With gentle movements of his wrist he began to unnerelly cut down the wasps monsters as I finished them off with bashing of my shield.

It was no special skill or power, just innate ability, how could he fight that way? he came from Japan as well, right? A modern Japan, if his clothes were any indication.

His sword moved like water downstream, even with my now enhanced kinetic vision I couldn't see the path the sword would take, each strike was as if I was seeing it for the first time.

"Naofumi-san,get your head in the game" Shirou warned.

I twisted myself and avoided by a mere inches the attack of those monstrous locust creatures and smacked them back, I had leveled up quite a lot since then, but my attacks did a meager amount, and I still needed defense cause otherwise I would be a VERY squishy meatbag.

Still my attack was higher than before and due to the training I underwent with Shirou I was scoring more "critical hits" as it where.

However I was still lacking in actual combat experience.

The locusts swarmed and came flying in my direction. There were other monsters too, like giant bees, and what looked like zombies.

**Clang! Clang! Clang!**

Whether it was because of my shield, or because of the Barbarian Armor, I couldn't tell. But I wasn't taking much if any damage.

"H…Hero!"

"Listen up! We are drawing the monsters off, so use the chance to escape!"

I saw a number of faces that I recognized.

"O…Okay!"

Everyone backed off and ran, leaving me to hold the line alone.

"Hey…"

What was wrong with these people?

I was ready to sigh in annoyance, but the monsters came at me with their fangs and claws.

I could hear clashing and clanging, but I wasn't taking damage. I could feel them crawling over me, their legs prickling at my skin. It made me sick.

I kept on hitting them.

**Clang!**

Seriously, what was wrong with the people? The wave of destruction had just come, but I was already annoyed with them all.

"H…Help!"

The owner of the inn that we stayed at was being chased by monsters.

The monster's claws were about to pierce right through him, but just before they did, I shouted: "Air Strike Shield!"

The shield appeared in the air to protect the innkeeper. With it just appearing in mid-air, the guy was surprised, and he turned to look at me.

"Run!"

"Th…Thank you!"

He stuttered out his gratitude.

Shirou then changed back to the white sword he had before,and I had to give it to him, he would have been a better Sword Hero than that idiot Ren.

Another monster got behind him, but he was busy with partying an attack from another monster.

"Shirou! Behind You!" I shouted.

Then, on his free hand, another sword formed, this one was a complimentary one to the white one, one of deep black.

He moved on the spot and avoided the stabbing attack from the monster behind him, the white sword decapitated the one in front of him while the offending one from behind got slashed in 2.

"A-amazing" I said as I continued to be harassed by these monsters.

After a bit of fighting I managed to pry them off me.

"Yaaaaaaaaaah!"

A scream shot across the field, like tearing silk.

I turned to look, and there was a woman running madly, on the verge of being overtaken by a hoard of monsters.

She came relatively close by and…

"Shield Prison!"

The cage appeared and protected the running woman.

At the sudden appearance of the cage the monsters turned their attention towards me.

That's it. I'm right here. Come after me, just me.

Before the effect of the skill wore off, I drew the attention of the monsters and ran.

Huff... Huff… "Who else has been left behind?!"

I was looking around quickly, trying to find any stragglers when, all of a sudden, a monster came charging at me. I immediately threw up my shield to block the attack, and there was a shower of fireworks.

"A zombie…"

According to the information my shield was displaying, it was called an Inter-Dimensional Zombie.

It was nothing like the locusts and bees I'd been fighting up until that point.

It held a weapon in both hands, and it was wearing armor. That meant that he was stronger.

"Damn! Well, I've got no choice…"

At the very least, I needed to keep his attention on me until Raphtalia could complete the evacuation of the village.

But if I had a choice in the matter, it would be smarter to fight over where the other "heroes" were fighting.

Enemies continued to erupt from the cracks in the sky. If I could get even one of them to pay attention to me, my life would be that much easier.

"Hey, zombies, over here! You guys stink!"

I started to run faster. The locusts, bees, and zombies were chasing me, and they had other monsters with them. But they all ran at different speeds, so certain monsters pulled ahead of the others.

The problem was that none of them were very fast, so they set their sights on the nearest target: me.

"Damn, not you all too!"

I felt relatively safe, thanks to the shield. I really wanted to avoid their attacks if I could, but that didn't seem possible this time.

But I had to stop their advancement.

First, I would stop the attacks from head-on, then try to push back.

It was great that Raphtalia was helping evacuating the others, Shirou was **destroying** the overflow of monsters as to prevent me from being overwhelmed.

I felt a tad envious, but at the same time relieved, at least he could fight, I made a note to ask him about how he did the sword thing should we survive.

I changed to the needle shield to be able to attack, however that meant that my defense would be lower.

The needle shield attack was largely ineffective, but at least it created a gap in the line.

It was then when a large zombie wielding an axe was slashing at random.

"This could be trouble"

One of it's wild slashes bit deeply into me.

It hurt.

Why? why must I be subjected to this?

why should I defend these people who ridiculed me and Shirou?

"_Because it's the right thing to do_"

I gritted my teeth, "_You idiot, that's how you got into this problem too_" I thought in anger, not at him but at his situation.

I slammed my shield on the neck of a monster, decapitating it, as I got reminded of my talk with him a few hours prior.

**flashback… 7 hours ago**

It was beginning to darken, I let Raphtalia take a bed while Shirou and I went to a private room to discuss our situation.

He gave a slight chuckle at this and we went over how we should deal with the wave and what duties we should do.

Shirou and Raphtalia were the main attack force, he would provide cover for me and Raphtalia while disabling the enemies enough so we, me and Raphtalia, could finish them off and earn EXP.

I was afraid of the question I had… but, I had to ask.

"Why? why did you help me and even gotten yourself involved with this mess of mine?" I asked as I balled my hands in anger, rage and self-loathing.

"Because," he said simply "You seemed like you needed help" he said earnestly, wether you are innocent or not it doesnt matter, wther a saint or a sinner, we all pray for salvation, how coukd i not reach my hand out to you when you desperately needed someone?"

That was it, so pure, so simple and kind.

And this is the result? how could I accept this? no… how could **he** accept it?!

"But… look what it got you into, your reputation, we both are pariahs in this kingdom, yet you are STILL helping me… even if it's getting you into more trouble… I am just not worth it! Not only that, but you are helping the very people who lied about the whole thing and made us outcasts,that's wrong man, you should be greedier and selfish-er" I shouted as I glared at the shield in my hand.

I was useless, no matter how much I leveled up, my attack would always be a joke.

He chuckled

"Man, that takes me back, you know… I had a friend who said the same thing to me a while back… so I will answer you as I did her...Maybe I got something wrong, but it doesn't matter because the thought of wanting to help others definitely isn't wrong."

I was taken back at his reply and the kind look he had on his face. This world… this world did not deserve such a kind person.

"Naofumi-san," he said to me "It is fine for you to feel betrayed and to feel anger, it's only natural, but, if you keep that feeling and bottle it up and pile hatred upon hatred… only sadness,madness and despair awaits for you"

He spoke with such certainty that it scared me.

"Rest up Naofumi-san, tiredness is the enemy" Shirou said.

"Hunger… tiredness… we have a lot of enemies don't we?" I said sarcastically.

"That we do" he said as he looked at a corner of the room with an odd glint in his eyes.

I was not sure if it was a trick of the light from the fireplace… but I saw a shadow vanish.

**back to the waves **

**P.O.V Shirou**

"_this kinda reminds me of that time in Chaldea's training simulator… Medea really went all out with her dragon tooth warriors that day_"

I used Sasaki's sword to deal with the locusts and bees, as his ability to cut a flying swallow would no doubt be able to eliminate such pests that had a much simpler flight pattern.

I was proved correct, and slashed and killed the annoying pests as quickly as I could.

HYAAAAA!

A scream.

an undead,a ghoul of sorts was about to kill the daughter of the owner of the restaurant we frequented.

With a flick of my wrist I sent Bakuya and flew and great speeds,resembling a saw disk at high resolution.

The ghoul's head immediately was severed as my weapon stopped once the blade hit a wall and dug deep into it.

I turned to see a new group of people running away as Raphtalia gave orders and helped with stragglers.

However a new wave of enemies came, reinforcements most likely and they had their eyes at Naofumi-san.

While what the others heroes did was tactically right, it left a rather bitter taste in his mouth that they forgot about the innocent people who had no one to protect them.

It seems that Angria Manju was right about certain things.

A swarm of armored ghouls attacked the people…

"Not on my watch!" I said as I threw copy over copy of Kansho and Bakuya.

The blades flew and made a blade cage of sorts as they buzzed around, vivisecting any ghoul that dare approach.

The villagers where awestruck.

"Are… are you the sword hero?" One asked.

I shook my head, "No… I am just a simple person who just wishes to help" I said.

A new swarm approached and to make things easy I decided to disrupt the cage of swords with and extra set… and then, all of the copies followed suit.

Over 40 sets flew like buzzsaws and made short work of the ghouls approaching.

None had seen swords like this, yet this man was not the sword hero?

"I remember him, he is the one with the Shield boy… along with that demi-girl he is always with them and even help them train, they been to my place quite a bit" the restaurant owner said.

"Everyone, follow Raphtalia and keep grouped up,children and women go inside a circle while the able bodied men form a protective enforcement and move in tandem… now hurry!" Shirou said.

However some villagers grabbed whatever they could and armed themselves.

"We have to fight… this here is our village so we have to protect it" they said.

They rushed to try and defeat as many monsters as they could, to ease the burden of the 3 heroic people who have taken the time to protect them.

They felt obligated, the king had demanded that they made their lives hell, and they had to obey least they or their loved ones suffer, for the princess and the king were despots and Tyrannical rulers but more so was the princess, she was a person who delighted herself on the missery of others that she herself caused… but they knew that neither of those 2 boys had done what rumors said.

Yet they were afraid of reprisal.

'At least… let us pay you back however we can…' where their thoughts.

And so they joined in as Naofumi was bewildered at their actions,however he did his job as the Shield hero admirably, even if he was doing it for the selfish desire to survive and get revenge on those who turned him into the wretch that he became.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

Hate.

I wish all of you bastards just died.

I hated them.

I did not ask for this.

This was all imposed on me, I was quite literally taken against my will to battle a battle not my own.

Being framed for a heinous act I did not commit.

Having an innocent person involved on it all, and they had the gall to force me to fight for them.

I was fighting for my life, I wanted to survive just to spite those bastards.

I used to edge of my shield as much as I could, dealing damage, as little as it was, I managed to kill many of the monster bees and locusts and my EXP went up quite a bit, but my attack was a joke.

Unlike Shirou who had actual combat skills and knowledge and Raphtalia who wielded a short sword with a modicum of skill thanks to Shirou's tutelage, I was just the screener/tank/kiter of the group.

I made little contribution to the damage pool than those 2 did, Shirou was more worried about the townsfolk and was splitting his focus between them and keeping me somewhat safe, as I continued to accrue EXP.

I was quite jealous, he could actually fight, even without a legendary weapon like mine.

It took me a while but I started to notice that the monsters were falling around me.

The villagers had gathered whatever tools they had and were actively fighting!

"Hero!"

"What the hell? What are you doing here? You're in my way! Get the hell out of here!" I shouted.

There were a number of men from the village there, armed with farming tools.

Among them were some of the people I had just helped.

"But you are all by yourself, Hero!"

That was THEIR fault, not mine! Did they think I was alone because I wanted to be?

That adventurer I'd helped to escape was there with them.

"This is our village! We can't just leave it!"

"Fine then! I will be the shield. Help me defend the line until the evacuation is complete! Get into a proper formation so that I can protect you, and let's get them!" I said as I took charge.

"Yes sir!"

Honestly, I needed the help. Not only was I unable to attack on my own, but working as a group would put us in a different league. Working with Raphtalia and Shirou had made that abundantly clear.

I changed back to the Light Metal Shield, and me and the other villagers ran to draw the attention of the monsters.

"Get an attack in and back off. We'll break up their advance. Then I'll jump in and take their attacks."

"Yes sir!"

To protect them, I ran to the front of the formation and took the enemy attacks with my shield. They used their farming tools to attack the monsters, poking at them from behind me.

One jab wouldn't do it, but after getting hit ten or twenty times, the monsters started to fall.

"Squeee!"

If the monsters went to attack the villagers behind me, I jumped in place to block them.

"Relax! I'll take all of the damage with my shield. You all just focus on attacking the monsters!" I said as I parried the blow and diverted it to the side.

The attack got severely decreased that way, Shirou's training was paying dividends.

They looked relieved. At the very least I figured it was safe to assume that they understood they were going to be protected. They say in battle that whoever shouts the largest will amass followers. I suppose that was what was happening. But that was good for me. Just like I'd said, if they would help me, I'd protect them.

"But even still… There are so many monsters. When is that evacuation going to wrap up?!"

"What are the other Heroes doing?"

"Ha! They're fighting the waves and ignoring the people!" I said coldly a d callously.

"But they…"

One of the villagers fainted when they heard that.

Just then, I saw a large shadow appear on the ground. And that man was flung away in a heartbeat.

"Ugh…"

There was a giant zombie there. Compared to the other zombies, he was not only bigger but was wearing more extravagant armor and carried a larger axe.

I stopped one of his attacks with my shield, but it was so powerful that it made me dizzy, and I reeled back.

Like hell I would let myself

die here!

I grit my teeth and tried to focus. If I lost my footing, I might really die.

This guy was way stronger than the others.

Even though he hadn't really landed a direct blow, I still took damage. He was unbelievably powerful.

"Are you okay?" I asked the townsfolk whom I defended.

"Huff… Yes… But… Hero?"

"I'm fine! You all back off! I'm not sure if I can protect you all from this guy!" I said as I glared at the giant zombie.

"But!"

Were these villagers even listening to what I was saying?!

Just then…

"Naofumi-sama!"

Raphtalia was there, sword in hand, ready to fight.

"Raphtalia! You're just in time! We're taking this guy down." I yelled.

"All right!"

We both turned to the giant zombie, and I held up my shield in preparation.

"I'll draw his attacks with my shield, and you focus on attacking, just like we've done the whole time." I told her.

"All right."

The zombie, while much bigger than his compatriots, didn't seem that much more skilled. He turned his gaze to me and swung his enormous axe. I took the shock head-on. I couldn't avoid his attacks lest he decided to turn his attention to Raphtalia instead. And if I had dodged them, it would throw off the rhythm, and Raphtalia would end up confused as well.

The giant zombie raised his axe to strike, and Raphtalia dashed in to jab him with her sword.

I stopped his axe with my shield, but due to Raphtalia's strike, the swing wasn't as strong as before.

Yes! We might have a chance.

"Raphtalia, this guy likes to attack whatever is nearby. Once you stick him, back off, and once I draw his attack, rush in for another shot!"

"Yes!"

"W…Woah…"

The gathered villagers let their emotion slip out.

Which reminded me, we needed to get them out of there.

"You're still here? Get out of here! I appreciate your help, but now you are just getting in the way! The whole reason I'm here is to keep people like you from dying!" I shouted.

"O…Okay…"

They seemed scared by my sudden outburst and nodded as they slowly began to back way.

Just as they seemed to be at a safe distance, I had a sudden bad feeling in my gut.

"Raphtalia!"

I ran to her and threw my cape around her, hugging her close.

"Naofumi-sama?!"

I changed my shield to the Light Metal Shield for its strong defense rating.

An instant later, fire rained down on us.

I saw the group of knights that had arrived through a break in the monsters. There were magic users among them, and they had thrown a _Fire Rain_ spell in our direction.

"Hey! We're on your side!" I shouted out.

The flames stopped immediately, but the monsters were all ablaze.

There were so many insects, and they caught fire very easily.

Apparently not only my physical defense rating was high, but my magic defense was high as well. Either that, or I owed it to the special effect of the Light Metal Shield.

The giant zombie let out a deafening scream through the rain of fire and fell over.

I watched the line burn and, still in disbelief that they would fire on their allies, walked in their direction, shaking the embers from my cape and glaring at the assembled knights.

"The Shield Hero, eh? You're tough."

Someone who appeared to be the leader of the knights spat in my direction as I approached. Raphtalia's sword flew from her sheath and she pointed at the knight who'd spit at us.

"What are you planning to do to Naofumi-sama? Your life depends on your answer!"

There was raw hatred burning in her eyes.

"You with the Shield Hero?"

"Yes, I'm his sword! Show him the respect he deserves!" she said with a nasty glare.

"Ah, a measly demi-human wants to fight with the kingdom's knights?"

"You spit on the people you have sworn to protect and hurl flames at Naofumi-sama, who is supposed to be your compatriot! I don't care if you're a knight, I don't respect behavior like that!"

"Well, you survived just fine." he said with a shrug.

"Just fine?!" she shouted enraged at their flippant attitude.

As they fought over the particulars, the other knights formed a circle around Raphtalia.

"Shield Prison!" I said as my shield went into action.

"Y…You!"

The leader of the knights was firmly shut in the cage. I glared at the rest of the knights. What kind of knight would attack their allies?

"The enemy is coming from those waves. Don't get confused about who you are fighting!" I said in an even and calm time.

Then, many of the knights looked surprised before they turned their faces away.

"Pretty self-righteous for a criminal."

The monsters were aflame at the line, and they crawled in my direction to attack. The knights watched me defend against them all, and the color drained from their faces.

I was the Shield Hero, after all. They weren't going to be able to defend the line on their own.

"Raphtalia, is the evacuation finished?" I asked her without taking my eyes of these so called knights.

"Not yet, it will take a little longer."

"Damn. Then hurry up and finish it!" I ordered.

"But…"

"Yes, they rained fire down on us, but I didn't take any damage. But, if they plan to continue condescending to me…"

I tapped her on the shoulder and glared at the knights.

"I'll kill them. I don't care how. But if I have to, I'll feed you to the monsters and run." I said to the group of knights.

I don't know if I'd managed to intimidate them, but they took a deep breath and stopped in the middle of summoning a spell.

"All right Raphtalia, we can't start fighting until the evacuation is completed. The villagers are getting in the way. Yes, there are a lot of enemies, but it's fine, Shirou is getting the biggest being of the bunch and making sure we are not overwhelmed.

Surprisingly, it looked like I could hold them off for the time being.

"Okay!"

She nodded, and ran off in the direction of the village.

"Damn! So that's your plan, eh, Shield Hero?"

Just as the effect of the Shield Prison wore off, the knight leader yelled condescendingly at me.

"Oh, were you planning on dying?"

There were monsters crawling up and swarming behind me.

It looked like they were finally realizing that they needed me. The fools finally shut up and backed down.

I swear, there wasn't a good man to be found in this whole world.

If I weren't the Shield Hero, if I could do something besides protect people, I certainly wouldn't have stayed to save them.

Soon enough, we had managed to halt the progress of the monsters, and to beat them back. We managed to get a foothold and dealt with most of them.

After Raphtalia finished evacuating the useless villagers, she came back to the line and handled attacking.

The knights supported us, and eventually the cracks in the sky closed, but it took a number of hours.

"That pretty much takes care of it."

"Yeah, the boss was easy enough."

"Yes, if this is all we are up against, the next wave should be a simple matter."

Just then, Shirou rushed in.

**P.O.V Shirou**

It seems that in this world, the term "Don't raise a death flag" does not exist.

Naofumi-san facepalmed as he heard the knights prematurely rejoice over the victory.

**crash**

The sound of crystal breaking, the zombie Naofumi-san was fighting a while back paled in the sheer mass this one had.

It was bulky, it's long dead muscles rippled underneath it's armor and in his hands held a rather large and dangerous claymore sword, it was obscenely huge.

With a swing he blew away all with the sheer wind pressure of his swing.

Naofumi,Raphtalia and the knights were blown away.

"D-damn… how is this even remotely fair?"

"Damn it… haven't you idiots ever heard of not counting your chickens before they hatch!?" Naofumi yelled out as he and Raphtalia tried to get up.

They got very much wounded.

They couldn't stand up.

**trace start**

I need a weapon… something to stop the undead before me…

**Search found**

A weapon made in the church.

Sacraments made into a weapon, forged with the sole intent of destroying all that is unnatural. The Black Keys.

4 sword rappiers formed around me.

"Trace bullet… fire!"

The 4 blades flew true.

those blades pierced the body of the huge ghoul as a hot knife trough butter.

But I was not done, to be honest I was rather distraught and needed to do this to calm down… after all…

**some minutes ago**

As I defended the villagers elsewhere and managed to clear out the sector I took charge of I found myself looking at a holo-magical projection,not unlike with Chaldea, only that, rather than the self proclaimed "universal genious" Da'Vinci was none other than the wizard marshal himself.

Master of Kaleidoscope,Zelretch.

However, something was wrong.

"Shirou, can you hear me? listen, we don't have much time but. I.t wasn't me… listen, someone had decided to call out to a person who could become the sword hero in that world, using an incomplete version of the summoning array that rather than connecting to the Throne of Heroes connects with the subconscious of humanity… dunno how they did that, but they have… listen, you are the prime candidate for the sword hero, however… due to your alien concept that you can manifest, you where treated as part of the summoning along with the other kid, I can, with 10000% ascertain that I did not have anything to do with this, nor any of my alternates" he said as the image begun to blur and static began to start.

"Shit, listen, do your best to survive, don't worry about secrecy of magic,it doesn't apply when the world treats magic as ordinary… tough your magic is any thing but… anyways, until the waves are cleared, you are stuck there,I can periodically contact you along with the Tohsaka and the Arthoria brat … but even with my power I am unable to transport you or the other ones back someone stronger than I must be behind it all… by the way, Gudao and Gudako say hi"

With that the transmission ended.

**back to present.**

This was the worst news I received.

For something to block him of all people.

The large hulking ghouls then made a bunch of smaller ghouls appear and I traced more black keys. However these ones where special.

Once the half dozen Ghouls got stuck the blades vanished and a murder of crows flew towards them all and devoured them to the bone.

The excarnation rite.

Raphthalia's face turned a dark shade of green, as well as the soldiers.

I raised my hand up.

They looked up and paled as they saw the sheer amount of blades poised to the huge ghoul.

Like an executioners axe I dropped my hand and thus the blades rained down.

A cacophony of metallic sounds and the pained growls of the many undead was then meet with silence.

All the Black Keys where hilt up on the ground and the monsters laid broken.

It was then when all the villagers saw that it was indeed, finally over.

Yet I felt empty…

I was trapped. Trapped in a world much darker than my own, a world the kinds that Archer had warned me of, the ones akin to my other alter future self came from.

"Well… shit" I said as it was drowned over the cheers of the people.

Naofumi then got around and looted the monsters for anything valuable as well as materials to strengthen his shield and to sell… there was quite a bounty in here to be made.

And so… this was how the first wave was defeated. And a town was forever grateful to their saviours.

Chapter end.


	4. Chapter 4

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Author notes: Seems I have someone who dislikes the P.O.V jumps… anyone else has a dislike to it?

Help me tailor this story so it becomes better.

It will diverge from cannon somewhat, but still following the story.

As I said before I am looking for a beta reader for a light novel I am writing, so please do hit me up.

FYI. This is all writting on my smartphone as I lack a computer, if anyone would care to help me get a raspberry pi 4b of 4 gb ram I would be most thrilled.

**Chapter 4: Conflict**

**P.O.V Shirou**

We made our way towards the castle after the wave was over, it seems once it's done we are teleported elsewhere,such as a waypoint.

This was magic that had died in my world and any magus would give their life and more to be able to learn it. That or study it so their descendants could.

Anyways I heard Naofumi groan as he learned that one could add people to the party so they can be transported alongside with them.

"I bet those idiots did not even think of doing so, that or they though they could do it on their own" Naofumi said as we all headed to the castle.

"Excellent work, Heroes! I'm truly shocked! We suffered far less damages than last time!" The king declared.

The sun had fallen and night had come. We were gathered at the feast the king had prepared for us in the castle.

I didn't know how many people had died in the last wave, but apparently the deaths this time could be expressed with a single digit.

Certainly he wasn't going to suggest that any of us were more responsible for the new outcome than the others, and certainly I was not going to even be mentioned, which suited me just fine.

Granted, the other heroes had taken out a lot of enemies, and yet… I didn't honestly think we would get off so easily the next time.

The hourglass had transported us to someplace nearby, which certainly was a help. Had it been further out, somewhere that the knights would not have been able to get to so quickly, what would have happened then?

There was so much to learn.

Naofumi was in a corner eating the food, but unable to taste anything,his hate had prevented him from being able to enjoy most things and close himself to all, lest he fully can trust them, such as me. He views Raphtalia in a manner not dissimilar of a master with a servant back on the Grail War.

Speak of the raccoon… she was in awe at the quantity and quality of it all.

"Eat what you want" Naofumi said to her.

She was ecstatic and gorged herself with whatever she could.

"Dish ish delishious… but the food Shirou-sama makes is superior" she said as she ate.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

I couldn't afford to give her great food all the time, so she should eat whatever she could when she had the chance.

Besides, it was thanks to her as well as Shirou that we fared so well during the battle.

"Oh… But if I eat too much, I'll get fat!"

"You're still growing." I said offhandedly.

"Um…"

She looked concerned.

"Just eat." I said with disinterest.

"Naofumi-sama... Do you like fat girls?"

"What?"

What was she talking about?

"Oh, nothing."

Just the thought of women made me remember that woman. I couldn't even think about liking women right then. Honestly, they just repulsed me.

"Oh right. I forgot. That's the kind of person you are, Naofumi-sama."

She sighed, as if surrendering to something, and reached out for the food.

"It's delicious, Naofumi-sama."

"Good."

"Yes."

This whole banquet was stupid. I wish I could just get paid and get the heck out.

It pissed me off just to see so many jerks in one place.

Now that I think about it, the reward might not even come until tomorrow. Was it a waste to have even come? No. At the very least we saved on the cost of food. Apparently Raphtalia was concerned about her weight, but the truth was that she was still growing, and she ate a lot.

"If only I had some plastic food storage containers or something. We could take leftovers with us." I said to myself.

Without any refrigeration, the food would only last until tomorrow. Maybe I could get the cook to wrap some stuff up for me later on. Maybe he could give me some left over stable goods too.

As I was thinking all this over, my mortal enemy, Motoyasu, was pushing his way through the throngs of people and coming over in my direction.

What did he want this time?

The thought of talking to him made my stomach turn, so I tried to avoid him by walking off into the crowd. He followed me, glaring the whole time.

"Hey! Naofumi!"

"What?"

Very purposefully, he removed one of his gloves and threw it in my direction.

I think… Yes, that was supposed to signify a duel.

The crowd erupted in surprise at Motoyasu's next exclamation.

"I challenge you to a duel!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

He'd finally lost it.

Sounds just like the kind of person that spent too much time in games. Then again, he was the kind of animal that would leave people to die while he goes off to fight a boss. Some hero.

"I heard all about it! That girl with you, Raphtalia, she's a slave!"

He was seething with anger. He thrust his finger at me and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Huh?"

Raphtalia made a weird noise.

She had a plate full of delicious food, and was shoveling it into her mouth when she overheard Motoyasu's accusation.

"So what?" I said.

"What do you mean, 'so what?' Are you even listening to yourself?"

"Yeah."

What's so wrong with using slaves?

There wasn't anyone who would fight with me willingly save Shirou,but after discovering this downside we decided to do this. That's why I bought a slave.

And besides, this kingdom didn't have any laws against slavery.

So what was the problem?

"Yeah, she's my slave. You have a problem with that?"

"You… You can't force people into slavery! Especially not us! We come from another world. We can't behave that way here!" he said to me.

He was pissing me off

"What's all this now? You know there are slaves in our world too." I said cynically as I looked at him with my dead cold eyes.

Granted, I didn't know what world Motoyasu was from, but he was human, and humans had a history of slavery.

If you think about it, we're all sort of slaves to society anyway.

"We can't behave that way here? We? Just focus on yourself, okay?"

He couldn't make up his own rules and then expect me to follow them. He was crazy!

"You stupid brat. This isn't our world. Slaves do exist here. What's wrong with using one?"

"You… How dare you!"

He stepped back and pointed his spear at me.

"Fight me! If I win, you have to set Raphtalia free!"

"Why do we have to fight? And what do I get if I win?"

"You can do whatever you want then. You can just keep using Raphtalia the way you have been!"

"Some duel."

I turned away, and made to leave. Why should I fight when I had nothing to gain?

"I have heard what Motoyasu-sama had to say."

The crowd parted, like the Red Sea, as the king came strolling up.

"I had heard rumors of a Hero using slaves. But I cannot believe that it is true. So that's how it is, the Shield Hero truly is a criminal."

But slavery was legal here. If everyone else was using slaves, why were they singling me out like his?

"If Motoyasu's words do not sway you, then perhaps my order will. Duel!" he declared.

"What do I care? Hurry up and pay me for my services. If you pay me, I'll leave and get out of your hair."

The king sighed, and snapped his fingers. Soldiers appeared from all directions and grabbed me. I saw them restraining Raphtalia too.

"Naofumi-sama!"

"What's all this?!"

I glared at the king with all the hatred I could muster.

He… He hadn't believed anything I'd said. Either that, or I was in his way.

"In this land, my word is law! If you don't cooperate, we will take her from you by force."

"Damn!"

"that's fine" a voice said.

I turned around.

Shirou placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled.

For some reason his smile made my body shiver… and Motoyasu was shivering as well.

Because, even if his smile was kind, the oppressive aura he had, made all falter and shiver in his wake.

"Don't worry… you won't loose to someone who relies on special skills alone" he said to me.

Raphtalia had become a prize… should I loose her my EXP farming would be over, and my growth stunted, thus potentially increasing my possibilities of dying. Shirou may be strong but he is only human so there would be a time where either he would be tied up and unable to save me,or he could die or something. Both ludicrous but I have to think in the worst case scenarios as to be prepared for the eventuality.

"T-that's right… the duel is with this scoundrel, not you" Motoyasu said with fake bravado.

It would been more convincing of he wasn't looking all over for a possible scape route should Shirou desire to intervene.

They altered the gardens to make space for our duel.

Torches were set along the perimeter, and everyone who'd been enjoying the feast came out to watch the heroes fight.

But of course everyone already thought that they knew how it was going to turn out.

I was unable to attack, and there I was fighting with the Spear Hero.

But this wasn't a fight between the Shield Hero and the Spear Hero. This was a fight between Motoyasu and me. He was just so prideful. I couldn't stand it.

Anyone could see how it would end though.

Everyone was shouting out their bets, and I couldn't hear anything over the din.

The castle had mostly been filled with nobility and knights, but there were some adventures there too, people that had fought with us against the wave. I suppose it was only natural that they would bet on it.

So apparently everyone assumed that I would lose, and they wanted to make money off it.

Ren and Itsuki were watching from the castle terrace and laughing.

They probably couldn't wait to see me lose.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit!

All of them, all of them wanted to get rid of me.

During the battle, they rained fire down on top of me.

This whole world was my enemy. Everyone was an enemy that laughed at me.

Fine. I am not going to fight, I am going to war… for me it was not about wining or loosing. I wouldn't be going down without a fight. I will fight not to win, but to not loose.

Watch me, Motoyasu. I hate you. I **HATE** you, more than you know. More than you can possibly imagine. You can't stop it. My rage is burning me from the inside fueling my strenght.

**H̵̸̴̸͜͟͠A̸͘͟͡͞T̷̶̨̡͞͞Ȩ̶͟͞͠ ̷̡̀͟K͏̵̶̸́͝I͏̵͡Ļ̵̢́̀̕͡L҉͠͏͏̸͢ ̨̀̀͟͟͠ḐE͝S̷̸̶͘͟͝T̵͟͡RO̕͟͝͠Y̷̴̧̧̧͞ ̵̷̸̨͘H̷̴͏̡A͟͠Ţ̸̨͞͝͡͞E H̷̴̡A̡͘͠T̴̶́͟͢͡͏E̡͡͏͘͡͏̸͜ ̧̕͟H̷͢҉̸̢̢̕͜AT̵͘͞҉̕Ę̧̨͘ ̡̛͟͞I ҉H̵̢A̕҉̶̵̡̨͞T̴̷̡E҉̡̨̢͏ ̴̨́̀̕͡͠͡Y̶͏̶̧̛͟͝O͜͟͞͡͏U̧͟!**

"Now for the duel between the Shield Hero and the Spear Hero! The duel will end when one of the contestants is pinned, or admits defeat." The king said with a cruel smirk.

I rolled my head, snapped my fingers, and set my footing. I have to remember all the training I did with Shirou and utilise it all.

"In a battle between a Shield and a Spear, who will win? Give me a break. You are going down." Motoyasu stuck his nose in the air and laughed at me.

**U̵̢̨̨͞ş͏̶̶̧҉̕͜E ̵͟U̧͘̕͢͏s̴ ̵̨̢̕͞͝Ừ̷̢͜n̡̛͢͢Le͏͏̴̴͡À̷̧̕͞s̸̶̡̧̕͢H̷ ̶̶̢̧̀͜͡͠ù͜S̷͘͞҉͏̡͜ ̴̷̡**

"Now then…"

Motoyasu, I'll show you that victory means more than just beating your opponent.

Victory was about accomplishing your goals. If our goals were different from the get go. The best spear in the world was the one that kills its opponent, but the best shield in the world is the one that protects its holder. They weren't trying to accomplish the same thing at all.

"Begin!" and then it started

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"GRAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I braced myself for a blow and ran at Motoyasu. Motoyasu readied his spear and ran at me. He wanted to end it with one attack.

Slow, he was so very slow.

Compared to the training I underwent with Shirou, his attacks lacked any real skill.

Suddenly, we were very close. I was in his range, and he threw his weight behind the spear and jabbed it at me.

If I knew where the attack was coming from, I could probably defend myself.

"Chaos Stab!"

Motoyasu's spear instantly split into many spears, and they all flew at me.

A skill! He was really coming after me.

But he couldn't stop my advance. I protected my head with the shield and ran at him.

My kinetic vision managed to view the path of his attacks and deflected them with my light metal shield.

While that skill would have struck me if it was the me from before, however the current me skill level managed to parry and deflect them.

He gritted his teeth in anger.

"You bastard!" he shouted as he charged at me, but with no special skill.

It must be its cool down period.

I delivered a blow with the edge of my shield making a thin line on his face, as this shield had no attack bonus and used the meager attack power that I had.

He smirked.

Don't worry… I have other ways to attack you.

Just how long did he think he could laugh me off?

I threw back my cape and pulled out my secret weapon and pressed it against his face.

"Ahh!"

They'd all burned up during the rain of fire, but I picked up some more on the way back to the castle.

"What the?"

Ahaha… Motoyasu was screaming in confusion.

The Balloon bit down deep.

"Ouch! Owww!" It had bit into his face, his perfect little face.

That's right, my attacks by myself where laughable... That's why I have these special weapons, designed for attacking other people, and they are called Balloons.

"Ahaaaa!"

I put two on his face, and then on his legs to keep him from getting up. Then I put another one on his crotch for good measure.

"What the hell are these Balloons?"

The crowds were shouting.

Like I cared!

I put all my weight onto the Balloon, and made sure the teeth were digging deep into his crotch.

"What… You! I'll get you!" he yelled with tears in his eyes.

"If I am not gonna make it easy for you, I am going to make you as miserable as I can! I'll start with that face you use to control the ladies, and take care of your little friend down there too! Without your face and your balls, you're nothing! Some ladies man!" I said with an evil and cruel smirk.

"What?! Arghhhhhh!" he yelled as be tried to pry them off.

"You're not getting up!" I shouted.

He reached up to pull the Balloons off, but I held his arms down.

He eventually managed to get the Balloon off of his face, but when he was knocked down, he couldn't swing his spear. When he ripped a Balloon off, I simply threw another one on, and it bought me some time.

It wasn't just Balloons either, I was using Eggugs too, and so many of them that trying to find Motoyasu was like a needle in a haystack.

I just focused on making him as miserable as possible.

I was not going to lose so miserably. I wanted to traumatize him the best I could. So he could have a taste of the despair they all threw me… threw us.

"Ahaaaaa!"

"Damn you!"

He tried to get up, but I threw all my weight on him to keep him down then piled on more Balloons.

Hey, if I was going to do this anyways there was something I wanted to try.

I turned my shield into the Two-Headed Black Dog Shield.

Motoyasu couldn't put any force in to his spear from that angle, so I was able to stop his weak attacks with the shield.

It made a sound like nails on a chalkboard.

The special effect, Dog Bite, started to work, and the dog heads on the shield howled and bit at Motoyasu.

A counter appeared for the Dog Bite effect.

The effect would last for thirty seconds, and the dog heads would bite at the enemy for the whole duration.

Normally the skill would do a little damage while it held the enemy still, but I could use it like this too.

"Ah, ouch!"

Huh? So it was really hurting him. Maybe I could win?

If so, then I had some other ideas too.

"Air Strike Shield!"

It appeared over Motoyasu's stomach, and the weight of it pinned him down.

This was a new way to use the skill!

Shirou WAS right, is all about how I use it, finding new and clever ways of using the abilities and skills to support myself!

"Le…Let me go!" he yelled as he tried to pry the air shield off him.

"You think you can take me? Get me then! You coward!" I said as I push him harder.

I hope he thought long and hard about challenging me, thinking that I had no way to fight back.

I held the Dog Shield and waited for Motoyasu to turn his face in my direction. Then I shoved the biting heads at him.

The effect was triggered, and they clamped down on his face.

"Dammit! Argh!" he yelled as his face was mauled.

"What do I care?"

Oh crap… The Air Strike Shield effect wore off.

"Shield Prison!"

"Ugh!"

Now he was trapped in a large cage. He'd never be able to get out, flipping around on his back like that. I threw even more Balloons and Eggugs at him.

I could win this! He didn't have any experience fighting other humans, did he? He had no technique or finesse, he thoughr powerful special skills would all that he would need.

Idiot.

"Guh!"

The Shield Prison broke. But the cool down time from the Air Strike Shield was also over, so I summoned another Air Strike Shield at the same time. Smashing him back to the ground.

The Balloons kept biting, and anytime I found an opening, I lunged at him with dog bite. I could win this!

"Hurry up and admit defeat! You want to win with this kind of foolishness?!"

"What is the Shield doing to the Spear Hero?!"

The crowd had started heckling. What did I care? Why should I listen to people that stood in silence when I was set up?

"Is the Shield Hero going to win?"

"No, it can't be…?"

They were going crazy.

They could not belive what was going on in front of them.

The hero of the Shield would defeat the powerful spear.

"Hear that Motoyasu? Give up. You've lost!"

"Give up? Ha!"

"Then I'll just hold you down until you can't stand it anymore! I really am winning!"

I looked for the king. He was watching the fight, as he would be the judge. He was obviously watching the fight, as if he was planning to do something. But what?

All I could do was keep on attacking Motoyasu's face and limbs.

If I didn't, it was like they couldn't tell who was winning.

I heard a small sound, it was barely noticeable but I caught it due to the traing and the high hyoer awareness I had due to the fight it sounded like when those blades Shirou made during the wave appeared and shot at the zombie.

Then I saw her, it was Malty, she had a look of pure and unadulterated RAGE.

Behind her was Shirou and in between her legs I saw the familiar sword with the red handle, bitting down on her shadow.

I turned around and saw many soldiers and magicians were the same, none able to move, their bodies shivering as they tried in vain to move.

Shirou just smiled.

**P.O.V Shirou**

I had a suspicion that this may happen.

I saw many soldiers and magicians ready to attack Naofumi should he even be close to winning.

To be honest I also had some gold ridding on him.

So, to keep things fair and fatten our wallets at the same time I prevented them from cheating.

Using spacial coordinates I managed to trace the Black Keys and have them bit on their shadows.

"Hello there princess, I hope you weren't trying to do anything… underhanded to this fair duel, are you?"I said in a sweet way with a gentle smile.

Inside I was furious.

I could tell she was activating her magic and thus stopped her in her tracks.

When she heard me she tried to turn but was unable to do so.

So she glared and mustered all her rage to force herself to move and undo this magic.

She couldn't, and so she looked staright forward venousmly.

I smirked as I moved away with a smirk on my face.

"I hate cheaters, so sit back and enjoy the show, as it will not be the one sided beat down you had hoped" I said.

She trembled in rage.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

This idiot, he had no idea how to fight human opponents!

He really tought I would fight with honor!

Honor? I don't need that crap!

I have no honor, you all took that away from me and dragged it trought the mud.

All I needed was to do what I set to do in the most efficient way possible.

Motoyasu's face was riddled with bruises and bites as he was hardly able to stand due to all the abuse his groin suffered.

"GIVE UP!" I yelled.

"Aaaaaah!" he yelled as he tried to swing at me.

It was a pathetic swing, hardly any force. I did not guard as my defence was enough to null the attack.

Then, with a swing of my shield I smacked him down.

"Y-you bashtard" he said as he passed out.

The whole place went silent.

I looked around as a man was giving a rather large of bag of gold to Shirou as he smiled at me and nodded, the man had his mouth agape… no one was able to believe what just transcurred.

I walked towards Raphtalia and then the soldiers pointed their spears at me.

"Do you really beleive I would accept this result? You have cheated and not fought honorably" the king said.

"Honor? you speak of it as if you had a measure of it, you send me to fight someone who has complete offensive capabilities while I had complete defensive ones, you expected me to loose and drag my reputation even lower… but guess what 'king'... there was no rule that said I couldn't do what I did, so I fought within the 'rules of this sham… now… release her! They all have seen that I had won" I yelled.

"Really? did they?" he said with a smirk.

THOSE BASTARDS!

Everyone was looking the other way! all of them smirking and smiling, the king smiled.

"Now then, let's save this poor girl from the ruffian" the king said.

I shivered… no… not again.

I won…

I WON

**H͏͡aTe ̶̀͟͟Th͜͡͞͡E҉m̡̛͞͡͡ ̷́C̵̨͘u̶̵͡RsĘ̴̛ ͘tH͝e҉̢M**

**͏̧͏̷̛H̵̛͘͞a̕̕T̡̀͜eH̛͏͢aT̡̕͠͞è̢̡̨͡H͏̵̛͠a̵͏̵͞͠Ţ̢͏e͠҉̵͞H̢̛҉̡͡a̡͟T̷̡ęHa͏̸͠T̢̛͟ȩ̢͝Ha̶͡͡T̀̕͜͞e̷̷͢͡҉H̶̢͠a͘͡T̨̡̕é̷́́͢H͜҉̸a͠҉͜T̢̨͝e̡̡̧͏̧͏̷̛H̵̛͘͞a̕̕T̡̀͜eH̛͏͢aT̡̕͠͞è̢̡̨͡H͏̵̛͠a̵͏̵͞͠Ţ̢͏e͠҉̵͞H̢̛҉̡͡a̡͟T̷̡ęHa͏̸͠T̢̛͟ȩ̢͝Ha̶͡͡T̀̕͜͞e̷̷͢͡҉H̶̢͠a͘͡T̨̡̕é̷́́͢H͜҉̸a͠҉͜T̢̨͝e̡̡̧͏̧͏̷̛H̵̛͘͞a̕̕T̡̀͜eH̛͏͢aT̡̕͠͞è̢̡̨͡H͏̵̛͠a̵͏̵͞͠Ţ̢͏e͠҉̵͞H̢̛҉̡͡a̡͟T̷̡ęHa͏̸͠T̢̛͟ȩ̢͝Ha̶͡͡T̀̕͜͞e̷̷͢͡҉H̶̢͠a͘͡T̨̡̕é̷́́͢H͜҉̸a͠҉͜T̢̨͝e̡̡̧͏̧͏̷̛H̵̛͘͞a̕̕T̡̀͜eH̛͏͢aT̡̕͠͞è̢̡̨͡H͏̵̛͠a̵͏̵͞͠Ţ̢͏e͠҉̵͞H̢̛҉̡͡a̡͟T̷̡ęHa͏̸͠T̢̛͟ȩ̢͝Ha̶͡͡T̀̕͜͞e̷̷͢͡҉H̶̢͠a͘͡T̨̡̕é̷́́͢H͜҉̸a͠҉͜T̢̨͝e̡̡̧͏̧͏̷̛H̵̛͘͞a̕̕T̡̀͜eH̛͏͢aT̡̕͠͞è̢̡̨͡H͏̵̛͠a̵͏̵͞͠Ţ̢͏e͠҉̵͞H̢̛҉̡͡a̡͟T̷̡ę**

The magicians did not move.

"Did you not hear me?" the king said.

"Oh, they heard, they just won't be able to do anything"

The magicians collapsed on the floor.

SHIROU!

However I was shivering… all of them… no matter what I do they wanna deprive me of everything.

Blamed for things I didn't do.

taken advantage of.

Having a good person suffer this alongside me.

Legends are born through evil. The more evil you were, the better you'd be remembered.

Throughout history, they'd be remembered as the heroes that took care of the fallen Shield Hero and saved a little girl. They'd have songs written about them.

The king was a jerk, and the princess was even worse!

Wait a second… The princess was… a bitch?

The phrase sounded familiar to me.

But from where? I know I'd seen it before.

…I remember. It was in The Records of the Four Holy Weapons.

The princess in the book was a bitch that made eyes at all of the heroes.

If those heroes were the same as the heroes in that book I'd read at the library, then it must have been connected somehow to this world, so it only made since that the princess would be a bitch.

I was filled with a burning hatred, and it ran powerfully through my body.

Thump, thump.

My shield was… pulsing.

_**Curse Series Shield: conditions met**_

The seething black hatred was absorbed by my shield, and my field of vision warped.

"Raphtalia!"

Motoyasu rushed over to her.

They'd removed the gag from her mouth, and as Motoyasu approached, her eyes filled with tears, and she turned to say something…

And slapped him with all her might.

"Y…You fool!"

"… Huh?" Motoyasu looked stunned and confused an angry red palm print lay on his face, it was strong enough to make his eyes water up.

"Of course I don't forgive your cowardice, but when did I ever ask for your help?!"

"But Raphtalia… He… He was abusing you!"

"Naofumi-sama never made me do anything I didn't want to do. The spell only made me fight when I was too afraid to have done it otherwise! Shirou-sama was there as well and made meals that put anything to shame I had anything I could ever hope for and they treated me with outmost respect and care, who do you think you are to take matters into your own hands!? "

I felt very light-headed and couldn't really follow what everyone was saying.

No, I could hear them, but I didn't want to listen.

I just wanted to get the hell out of there.

I wanted to go back to my own world.

"But that's not okay!" Motoyasu said.

"Naofumi-sama can't attack monsters on his own, so he needs someone to help him!" Raphtalia countered

"That doesn't have to be you! He'll work you to the bone! He also has that human of a monster with him, they don't need you"

"Naofumi-sama hasn't let a monster hurt me, not even once! When I got tired, he always let me rest! When I was hungry he would take turns with Shirou-sama and cook or we woukd go to a dinner to eat "

"N... No… He's not the kind of thoughtful person you… you think he is. Both of them are monsters in human skin!"

"Would you reach out to a sick, filthy slave?"

"What?" Motoyasu said taken back.

"Naofumi-sama And Shirou-sama did a lot for me. They fed me whenever I was hungry. When I was sick he made medicine for me. Would you? Would you have done those things?!"

"Of course!"

"Then you must have slaves of your own!"

"?!"

Raphtalia rushed over to me.

"Leave me!" I yelled histerically.

This place was hell.

The whole world was made of duplicity and evil.

The women, no… The whole world was laughing at me, punishing me, trying to hurt me.

When she touched me, I felt hatred boil inside of me.

When Raphtalia saw the way I reacted, she turned and glared at Motoyasu.

"I heard the rumors… That Naofumi-sama forced himself on his friend, that he was the worst of the Heroes."

"Right. Yes, he's a criminal! You should know since he made a sex slave out of you too!" Motoyasu said as he tried to stand using his spear.

"How can you say that?! Naofumi-sama has never touched me, ever! Not even once!"

She reached out and held my hand.

"Let me go!"

I was histeric… my mind was dark… I could see strange symbols in my head… dark images swam inside me.

"Naofumi-sama… What can I do… What can I do to earn your trust?"

"Let me go!"

The whole world thought I was contemptible! They blamed me for everything!

"I didn't do it!"

My pupils dilated… my body shivered.

I was flying into a fury, when something covered me.

"Naofumi-sama, please, please, calm down. Let me… Listen to me. Let me earn your trust."

"Huh?"

"If you can only believe a slave, because they are incapable of hurting you, then let's go back! Take me back to that tent, and I'll take the curse again and again so we can stay like this."

"Liar! What do you want from me?"

What? What was this voice that forced its way into my heart?

"Whatever happens, I believe you. I believe you, Naofumi-sama."

"Shut up! You want to frame me for something else!"

"I know that you wouldn't do what they accuse you of. You wouldn't force yourself on anyone. You aren't that kind of person."

It was the first time I'd heard the words I wanted to hear. The first time since I'd come to this world. From someone who was not Shirou.

I felt like the dark shadows surrounding me were starting to fall apart.

I felt kindness from another.

"The whole world might accuse you, might blame you, but I won't. I'll say it again and again: you didn't do it."

I opened my eyes, and when I saw her she was no longer a little girl. She was a seventeen-year-old woman.

I could tell that it was still Raphtalia. It was Raphtalia's face, but she was the cutest girl I'd ever seen.

Her hair had been so dirty, but here it was, beautiful and long, her dry and cracked skin was somehow changed. She had a healthy glow.

She had been so skinny, but now there was meat on her bones, and she was full and healthy and energetic.

She was looking at me. Her sad, dull eyes that always showed her surrender to life and its monstrosities were clear and bright and full of life.

I didn't know who she was.

"Naofumi-sama, let's head out of this place."

"W…Who are you?!" I said in shock. I was unable to reconcile this person with the kid I had take in.

"Huh? What are you saying? It's me, Raphtalia." he said with a chuckle.

"Ahaha, no. Raphtalia is just a little girl!"

This woman was claiming to be Raphtalia, the girl who'd just sworn to believe me. She looked confused, and cocked her head to the side.

"Oh c'mon. Naofumi-sama, you're always treating me like a kid." she said with a pout.

Her voice… It sounded just like Raphtalia's.

But she looked totally different.

No way, no way. This didn't make any sense at all.

"Naofumi-sama, let me tell you something."

"What?"

"Demi-humans, we… When we are young, our bodies grow with our levels. So we grow very quickly as we level up."

"Huh?"

"Demi-humans are not humans. This is one of the reasons that some people treat us as monsters".

The girl who called herself Raphtalia kept talking.

"Sure, I'm still… I mean I guess I'm not emotionally that mature, but my body has matured. I'm basically an adult."

She pulled me close and… and buried my face in her large, voluptuous breasts as she spoke.

"Please believe me. I believe, I KNOW, that you never committed any crime. You gave me medicine, saved my life, and taught me what I needed to survive. You are the great Shield Hero, and I am your sword. No matter how rough the path, I will follow you."

I'd… I'd wanted to hear that for so long.

Raphtalia kept swearing that she would fight with me.

"If you can't believe me, then please, use the slave curse to make me speak the truth as well. I want to stay with you. I will follow you!"

"Ugh…"

Hearing such nice words, for the first time, I found myself involuntarily sobbing.

I told myself to stop, to get a hold of myself. But I couldn't. The tears wouldn't stop.

"Ah… Ahhhhhhh… Ugggg…"

Raphtalia hugged me and pulled me against her as I cried.

"Motoyasu, you lose the duel. You broke the rules."

"What?!"

Ren and Itsuki spoke as they pushed through the crowd.

"We saw it all from up there. Your friend tried to attack Naofumi from behind with wind magic, but Shirou stopped her in her tracks, did not see how but she was unable to cast"

"No. That… That's not true!"

"Even the king had fallen silent. Can't you see that?"

"Has he?"

Motoyasu looked to the crowd, but everyone turned their faces away.

"B-but he threw monsters at me!"

"He has little to no attack power. You have to give him that much. You're in the wrong for challenging him to a duel in the first place. I mean… how lame can you get?"

He turned to Ren and Itsuki, he was so self-righteous, and shouted:

"But he… He… He concentrated his attacks on my face and crotch!"

"He knew he couldn't win, so he just did all that he could to hurt you. I don't think we can begrudge him that, besides… you had it comming, he was doing all he could to survive and advance yet you wanted to take it from him, he has little support from the crown,of course he would use lateral thinking and do the best course of action.

Motoyasu was indignant at Itsuki's words, but soon he relented.

"It looks like you are at fault, at least in this particular fight. Give it up."

"Damn… This isn't fair… I mean… Raphtalia is obviously brainwashed!" he said.

"How can you say that, after the scene we just witnessed?" Ren said as he closed his eyes… Motoyasu only believed on what he believed.

"He's right."

It was growing awkward, so the heroes made to leave. The crowd returned to the castle.

"Geez! That was boring!"

"I know… It was a disappointing result, to say the least."

The last two spectators, apparently unimpressed, slumped their shoulders and walked off. The two of us were left alone in the garden.

"It must have been so hard on you. I never knew. Please, share your pain with me."

At the kindness in her voice, I drifted off…

A slept for an hour, and Raphtalia held me the whole time.

I was surprised. I hadn't noticed how much she had grown.

How could I have not noticed? I was… probably too stressed.

I was too stressed to notice her growing. I had trained all my focus on her status and focused only on the rising numbers. She was numbers for me.

"Uh… so that explains that" Shirou said as he now understood her exponential growth.

He help take me to an empty bed and stayed to guard the door.

With a small blade he made out of nowhere he begun to carve symbols on the door and then the door glowed and then the glow vanished.

"That should make this place as safe as possible… now we can rest up and if needed talk in private" Shirou said.

Raphtalia took a chair and sat down near the bed as Shirou took the Otoman.

"Shirou… those swords… how… can… you explain?" I asked

"Uhmm you may not believe me but, fine, My name is Emiya Shirou and I… am a magus" he said with a smile.

Chapter end

Sorry for the short chapter, but next one will have a LOT of goodies, please review and like and share!


	5. Chapter 5

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Chapter 5: re-introduccions

**P.O.V Naofumi**

"My name is Emiya Shirou and I am a magus"

"Wait… wait… hold on, by magus you mean… magic?" I asked feeling taken back by this.

He nodded.

"H-how? I mean…" I mumbled.

"But magic is common here" Raphtalia said.

"Yes, **in here**...but where we are from…" he said.

"Its not called magic, is called something different, magecraft, or if you wanna ge more tehnical it would be taumathurgy" Shirou explained.

"Right… So,you can use magic"

"magecraft"

"magecraft whatever… how?" I asked.

"Well magecraft is very different from magic in this world, first thing you have to understand is, to use magecraft is to walk alongside death" Shirou said.

I felt a cold feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"W-what do you mean by that?" I asked with trepidation.

"Magecraft is very delicate, if you do it wrong, if you doubt even a little, it could destroy you from the inside out" he replied.

T-that's insane!

"Shirou-sama that is no good, you shouldn't use that kind of… magecraft, if it is dangerous you should use our local magic" Raphtalia said.

"I can't" Shirou said.

"What do you mean you can't?" I asked.

"Even in my world I was considered at best a 3rd rate magus, it was due to my element and origin" Shirou explained.

"What does that have to do with it?" Raphtalia asked.

"Both my element and origin is sword, meaning that any magic NOT related to blades… I am quite useless, save for real basic stuff such as runes or formalcraft" Shirou answered with a self depreciating smile.

"Then… those swords" I said as I pieced together everything.

"My magecraft allows me to recreate to near perfection any weapon I ever seen, save few exceptions" Shirou said.

A flash of light and in his hands was Motoyasu's spear, then on the other Ren's sword, then Raphthalia's own.

"My magecraft allows me to see all about a weapon, it's make, it's history and process and by doing so I also recreate the abilities it and their wielders had" Shirou said as he made them vanish.

"So that's how you knew…" I said as I remembered Shirou being able to know things about my own weapon that I did not even know.

"That is partially correct, you see, you can learn more provided you can understand and if you have faith on what you wish for… more and more paths and answers will appear should you do this" Shirou said.

"Ok… but, and I think this is important, how the hell can you fight so good?!" I exclaimed.

Shirou was toughtful and then decided on something, he grabbed a pitcher and filled a glass with it and sat down.

"Well, I guess… it started when I got involved in a war… the Holy Grail War, you see in my world magic is a limited resource, many things considered magic became mundane as time and science progressed and many got lost due to time and erosion or the descendants not having much power or a compatible origin/element, so they decided to reach towards Akasha, also called the Root, the wellspring of life, if you reached there you could see all information, past, present AND future. however they knew that it would be done anytime soon and their descendants began to work towards it…

A certain family of Mages had the ability to use one of the true magics, the ability to resurrect a person with no negative consequences, they lost that ability to use that magic, and so, with 2 other magus families they made an item with so much powerful magic that they could, according to them, reach the Root, or be granted a wish." He explained as he then took a sip of water. "The families realised that only 1 could get their wish and they killed each other… this repeated once more and they decided to organise themselves, to do so they contacted a magus who could use another true magic to connect a place called the throne of heroes, and one of the 3 families made a sort of slave seal, and they tied one heroic spirit to then, who materialised in physical aspect in a container called a servant, who had lowered parameters compared to the actual heroic spirit, however they decided to add more people and thus 3 became 7, in my case, when I went to the War, it was supposed to be 50 more years but it happened unexpectedly, I entered to protect any unrelated people and stop the madness,I had no desire for the Grail… I had no wish." Shirou went on.

"I summoned my servant by accident, as back then I was rather ignorant in my craft, The servants we summon where divided as follows, Saber, Lancer and Archer also called the knight servants, and then Rider, Caster, Assassin and Berserker, I summoned the Saber class and she was the one who taught me how to fight." I said as I remembered those times fondly.

"You said they are… heroic spirits right? so… who was it?" Raphtalia said with stars in her eyes.

It seems that she loved stories of heroes… however those 3, specially Motoyasu, had fallen from her.

"I doubt you would know her… but I am quite sure Naofumi-san will, my servant… her name was… Arthuria Pendragon" Shirou said.

I stood up to get some water and held the goblet… only for it to fall from my hands at hearing this.

"Ar-Arthuria?! wait… you mean as in **King** Arthur?!" I said.

"She hid her gender as back then only males could inherit the throne" I said.

"HOW… just how the hell is that even a thing… no… wait, that would explain some inconsistencies in the stories… such as the baby was always referred with gender neutral pronouns and the like…" I said as I remembered the many books I used to read back in college.

"Is she famous in your world Naofumi-sama?" Raphtalia asked.

"More than you know… she united her back then broken kingdom, she was known as a swordsman without equal, she made it to the throne by pulling the "sword in the stone" a sword that could only be pulled by one worthy to the throne, at least according to the tale" I said.

Shirou nodded "You are quite knowledgeable"

"Shouldn't you be even more So?"I said with a smirk.

"I suppose" he said. Best left unsaid that she was my life partner… well one of 2.

I stared at him, there was something he wasn't telling me.

"Anyways during the war we found out that the Grail was corrupted and could only grant wishes in a negative way" Shirou continued.

"What does that mean Shirou-sama?" Raphtalia asked.

I looked at her and then at Shirou.

He sighed.

"Let's say you wanted for there to be peace in the world and wished it upon the grail… due to the corruption it would be granted… the world would be at peace, by it killing any and all sentient life" he said.

We both shivered.

"Because of that, me and a fellow contestant decided to destroy the Grail… we managed to defeat many opponents and managed to destroy it with her noble phantasm" he said.

"What is that?" I asked.

"A noble phantasms can be a skill, ability or weapon deeply associated with the hero… so… you can guess what she used" Shirou said with a grin.

There is only one weapon that is associated with him… er… her.

I began to laugh. Compared to the sword Ren had, that sword was the pinnacle of swords… the most powerful and most coveted one in ANY RPG.

"It's as you think, his sword is… unique and quite good, but it is just a stick if you compare it to her blade." Shirou said.

"_Well there is also Rhongomyniad as well_" Shirou thought to himself. Motoyasu's spear was a joke compared to it, or any other spear from a heroic spirit of the spear to be honest.

"Wait… but those swords you used… none of them was Excalibur" I exclaimed.

"I was in a battle with many others heroic spirits... many of them had various other weapons" Shirou said. "Also, after the war I went to an institute to become somewhat more competent magus, some of my jobs I done was to duel other magus who used magic weapons of sorts, I also used to freelance and worked with the church and learned some of the weapons they use"

Raphtalia and I nodded, but I was the only one who understood what this meant, Shirou was quite literally the most powerful and skilled one here, by what I could understand.

After his explanation it was decided that we should rest up, we deserved it.

**Next day**

It was morning and the heroes (the ones who actually done heroic work) had woken up, they went down to the audience hall of the castle where they where to receive compensation for their job.

All the hero is received from 2000 to 4000 silver per hero, Motoyasu receiving the most.

With only a pittance of 300 silver coins for all the hard work they done, they left, but not before Naofumi said a few choice words to the king and the captain's of the knights who downplayed the danger the villagers where in.

Raphtalia, it seems was the only person in this world so far, besides Shirou, to now be able to be really trusted by Naofumi. A fact that Shirou silently thanked the little raccoon girl… well not so little anymore.

They went to the slave tent to see if they could get a new addition to the group. The slave trader greeted them and remarked how beautiful his former slave had become and would purchase her for 50 gold coins, provided she was still a virgin, else the price would be 30.

This upset Raphtalia, as she declared she was still a virgin and then realising what she said hid her now red face behind her hands.

Naofumi joked about maybe selling her and that upset her,but then he said "HOW could anyone sell their daughter"

It seems the bond between them had grown in a strange way.

He had become like a father to her.

Of course this was in direct contrast of her own feelings it seems, not that he could notice it.

Naofumi then got an idea "Say, could you sell me some of the ink you use for the seal?"

The slave trader accepted and gave it away for a modest fee.

Naofumi decided to drop a bit if it on his shield for it to absorb it.

_**Slave User Shield: conditions met**_

_**Slave User Shield II: conditions met**_

_**Slave User Shield: ability locked:**_

_**equip bonus: slave maturation adjustment (small)**_

_**Slave User Shield II: ability locked:**_

_**equip bonus: slave status adjustment (small)**_

Naofumi had just gotten a slave user shield, and it increased the parameters of a slave on level up.

He then turned to Raphtalia.

"What is it?" she said.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

That reminds me, I'd let the shield absorb some of her hair. At the time I'd seen something about a raccoon shield, but this must have completed another requirement. That must be what unlocked the Slave User Shield II. At least, that was my best guess.

Which would mean that…

"Raphtalia, can I use a little of your blood?"

"What is it?"

"I want to try something."

She tilted her head and looked confused but poked the end of her finger with a penknife anyway. She dripped the blood into the ink pot, mixed it, and poured a little onto my shield.

_**Slave User Shield III: conditions met**_

_**Slave User Shield III: ability locked:**_

_**equip bonus: slave maturation adjustment (medium)**_

Nice! I was right!

"Naofumi-sama? You look like you're having a lot of fun over there."

"Yeah, well, I just unlocked an interesting looking shield."

"Excellent."

I changed my shield into the Slave User Shield and decided to wait for the ability to unlock.

"Now then… Hm?"

We were finished there, so I turned to leave when I noticed a large wooden crate in the corner of the tent. It was filled with eggs.

I'd never seen it before. What could it be?

"What is that?" I asked the slave trader.

"Oh, that's a product for our cover business."

"And what IS your cover business?"

"We deal in monsters."

His eyes shined when he answered.

"Monsters? You mean there are monster trainers around here?"

"You are a very clever man. Have you heard of them?"

"I don't think I've ever met one, but…"

"Naofumi-sama."

Raphtalia raised her hand.

"What is it?"

"Filolials are monsters raised by monster trainers."

I'd never even heard of a Filolial. I didn't know what she was talking about.

"What's that?"

"Those giant birds around town. The ones that pull carriages instead of horses."

"Oh, yeah. Okay."

"Uh," Shirou said "I thought their names was Chocobo"

I rose my eyebrows,that sounded familiar.

Anyways… I'd seen them in town. They were giant birds that were used like horses. I thought they were some kind of animal that existed in this world, but I guess they were technically monsters.

"There was a monster trainer in my village. He had a ranch where he raised different monsters for their meat."

"Really…"

I guess in this world, farmers and ranch herders, anyone that worked with creatures like that were considered monster trainers. Maybe they just didn't have the idea of "animal," and everything that wasn't human was called a monster.

"So what are those eggs?" I asked.

"If the monsters aren't raised from the egg, they won't take to human masters well. That is why we sell them as eggs. Yes sir."

"Okay."

"Would you like to see the monster cages?"

He'd sell anything you wanted. This slave trader was quite the industrious capitalist.

"Nah, I'm good for now. But hey, what is that sign that's leaning on the egg crate?"

I couldn't read what was written on it, but there was an arrow pointing to the box, and it appeared to be scrawled with numbers.

"It's a lottery! One try for 100 pieces of silver, and if you win, you get an egg!"

"That's one expensive ticket." Shirou commented.

At the moment, we had 508 pieces of silver at hand, plus 60 gold coins with Erhard, which was quite a lot of money.

"Well, they are very valuable monsters."

"I'm just asking to get an idea, but what were they called? Filolials? How much do you normally sell one of those for?"

"For an adult? Typically around 200 pieces, but that can go up or down depending on the quality. Yes sir."

"If you charge 200 pieces for an adult, then I'm guessing a chick is cheaper? And the eggs must be even cheaper yet... Well, I suppose you have to account for the cost of raising the thing, but still. I'm wondering if it's a good deal."

"Well it's not like that, you see. The real egg is mixed in with other eggs."

"Oh yeah, you did call it a lottery."

So you could either hit or miss.

So if you pulled a loser, you would get nothing, and if you pulled a winner, you still ended up paying more than you would have in the first place.

"And I'm guessing there aren't actually any real eggs in there?"

"How dare you? Are you accusing me of unjust business practices? My dear Hero…"

"Am I wrong?"

"I am very proud of my business. I might enjoy tricking a customer now and then, but I take no pleasure from misrepresenting my products."

"You like tricking people, but not misrepresentation?"

"In other words, you don't lie,you just say truths people don't want to hear, am I wrong?" Shirou said with an awkward smirk.

I couldn't follow his logic. I gave up on that for the time being.

"And what do you get if you pull the winning egg?"

"I'll try to make it easy for you to understand, being a foreigner and all. Simply put: a Knight's Dragon."

Woah, a Knight's Dragon? I wonder if that was a class of dragon that knights rode in battle?"

"Is that a dragon that people ride like a horse?"

"Not just that, this one can fly. They are very popular, so the game has been a hit with the nobility."

"A flying dragon? It was like a dream!

"Naofumi-sama?"

"To buy one on the market you'd need around 20 pieces of gold. They are one of the cheaper dragons. Yes sir."

"What's the probability? Just tell me the chances for the dragon egg."

"There are 250 eggs in the crate, and only one of them is a dragon egg."

So it was a one in 250 chance.

"I've compensated for differences in weight with a magical spell. You must agree to the possibility of drawing a losing egg before purchasing a ticket."

"You're quite the business man." I said with a smirk.

"Yes, well. Whenever there is a winner I learn their name, and they tend to spread the word around for me."

"Yeah, but those chances aren't so great…"

"Well, there is this box over here, and if you buy ten tickets, you are guaranteed to win at least once. Yes sir."

"Well, I assume there are no dragon eggs in that one?"

"Yes, that's true, but the prize is definitely worth at least 300 pieces of silver."

Hold on a second, isn't this like some gacha game? C'mon!

These games are set up to make profits for the businesses who make them. And he almost had me for a second there…

"Hmm…"

Thinking it over, I wondered how far I could progress with only Raphtalia in my party?

Would it be cheaper to buy another slave, or to buy a monster to travel with us?

Maybe I should try out my new slave user shield. Raphtalia was already at a pretty high level, so the maturation adjustment probably wouldn't benefit her all that much.

But then again, I'd have to raise the monster. Traveling with Raphtalia, the major costs were updating her equipment. But there was a good chance that monsters could fight without having to use any equipment at all. I could use all the additional money we earned on Raphtalia.

"All right, I'll try it once."

"Thank you very much!."

"How generous of you. I like that kind of thing."

"Naofumi-sama?!"

"What is it?"

"Are you buying a monster egg?"

"Yeah, I thought we could probably use another party member. I could get a slave, but they would end up costing more money for equipment. I figured that investing in a monster might be a good way to go."

"Yes, but monsters can be a real handful." she replied.

"I know that. But don't you kind of want a pet?"

"Are you sure that you aren't trying to get a dragon egg?"

"Even if we got an Usapil, I'd be fine with that." I kind of liked little animals. MMORPGs often let you keep pets and use them in your party. At the very least, they could be relaxing to have around. And if I could give them orders, like a slave, then they could help out in battle.

We had a little extra money, and I could tell that it was loosening my purse strings. But still, it didn't seem like a poor investment to me. Besides, if there was a Slave Shield, there should be one for monsters too.

"And if we raise it up and then sell it, we won't feel as bad as if we'd done the same thing to a slave."

"Oh okay, I think I understand now."

Sure, we might get attached, but we needed money—there was no escaping that.

I think selling off a slave is difficult because you know that they are a person. Just like Raphtalia had come back to me of her own free will, if the next slave did the same thing, I wasn't sure I'd even be able to sell another slave off at all. At least a monster wouldn't talk. So, even if we did grow attached, I think I'd still be able to turn it over for a profit.

I could just pass it over, and sort of pray that it ends up with a good master. Something like that anyway.

"I'm sure you'd assist me in that, wouldn't you?"

"The depth of your consideration never fails to impress, Hero. Yes sir!"

He was loving this conversation.

I looked over at all the eggs. He already said that there was a spell on them to make them indistinguishable, so I guess I should just choose one at random.

"Don't look at me, my luck is horrible" Shirou stated.

He told me how he entered the war.

It made me glad that Motoyasu was not skilled in the spear.

"I'll take that one." I said pointing at a particular egg.

The slave trader wrung his hands in delight and brought over a machine that looked like some kind of incubator. I placed the egg inside.

"If it doesn't hatch, I'll be back for my money." I warned.

"I tip my hat to you, Hero! Determined to get his money's worth even if he pulled a losing egg." The slave trader seemed to be in a very good mood. Was he some sort of closeted masochist? Not that I wanted to make fun of another guy, but… actually, come to think of it, I wouldn't mind seeing those other stupid heroes in a bit of pain.

"Even if it's just a verbal agreement, I really will be back. If you act like this conversation never happened, my unstable slave here might just cause a ruckus."

"Hey, what are you expecting me to do?" Raphtalia asked feeling abir overwhelmed.

"I'll be waiting for you, yes sir!"

He was in a VERY good mood.

"Just when should I expect it to hatch?"

I passed him 100 pieces of silver as I asked.

"It's written on the incubator."

"Let's see here…" I saw something that looked like numbers of some kind, but I couldn't read them.

"Raphtalia, can you read this?"

"Let's see, just a little bit. It looks like the numbers will be gone sometime tomorrow."

"That's fast. Excellent."

I was getting excited. I couldn't wait to see what kind of monster hatched from the egg.

"I'm always glad when you pay me a visit. Yes sir."

I took the egg in my arms, and we turned, leaving the tent behind us.

"That man likes people who know how to do business" Shirou said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well...moat people would be awkward or blindly trust him, or they would think themsleves as superior to him, by showing him that you were equals and expected him to act as he should… well you can understand that right?"

I pondered a bit, it made sense I suppose.

"Waah, Shirou-sama is so smart too" Raphtalia said.

"Guys… you keep going, I will go out to train" Shirou said.

"I hope it isn't about…"

"Yes… I have to keep it sharp… a single mistake could be costly" Shirou replied.

With that he left to a small clearing.

**P.O.V Shirou**

I traced a training weapon and begun to practice some forms, slowly I begun to utilise HIS style… counter guardian Emiya (Archer), his attacks, his movements, and then I switched.

It was now HER style.

Like a hurracaines I swung my practice sword and concentrated my strenght, subliminating her style into mine, then I switched, this time Sasaki's swordmanship and way of life… slowly I begun to become part of the world, nothing existed around me and therefore nothing to see, that made people ignore my very existence.

I went on as I kept practicing to be able to use the techniques the other servants used without usually using their own signature weapons… it was taxing for my body after all.

Another idea stuck me.

A way to make money in this world besides selling the drops from monsters.

"_While Muramasa was inhabiting my body… I learned a lot,while my skills is magecraft in re-creating weapons, he could in fact make swords that could reach into the realms of gods… so… if I used even a fraction of it… I could give it to Erhard-san and he would sell it and pay me a percentage for the sale_" I thought to myself as I sat down on the grass thinking about the possibilities.

Also… there was another idea.

Mash Kyrelight.

The shielded Demi-servant who held the Shield… Lord Camelot.

Could his shield absorb it? or copy it?

If so, could he use its Noble phantasm? Or would it change to match his abilities.

Granted it was not hers but Gallahad's, who was inhabiting her body… but… the laws of magic did not quite obey the laws I was used to.

There where more shields that I had, Like Boudica's or Rho Aias…

It was food for thought.

I decided to head to Erhard-san and ask him.

**Erhard's shop**

"Oh? it's you, how is the armor I made?" He asked to me.

"Hello Erhard how do you do, I was wondering if I could perhaps make some swords for you to sell, as you know… with our reputation…" I said leaving it trail on for him to catch on.

"Uhmm… tell you what… after the next wave, come over and do a piece, if it can exceed my expectations I will accept the deal, is that good?" He said with a smile.

I smiled and shook hands with him.

I then walked about and found both Naofumi and Raphtalia, she was carrying the incubator.

We decided to head to the town he had protected and see how they where.

The process of reconstruction was slow going but it was there.

Many if the townsfolk greeted us and thanked us for not abandoning them.

Naofumi looked like he felt awkward, as he was not used to praise due to the treatment in the castle.

one of them gave Naofumi a book that had received for mid-level grade potions.

We went to a magic shop where they told us the owner had a gift for him as well.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

"Oh! The Shield Hero! I have to thank you for saving my grandchild."

"Right…"

I didn't actually know who she was talking about, but it must have been one of the villagers in Riyute. The old lady who ran the shop had run to politely greet me at the door.

I call her an old lady, but she was a pudgy woman dressed like a witch.

"I heard you wanted to see me?" I looked around the shop I'd previous misconstrued as a bookstore. The shelves were lined with old, dusty books, and there were a number of crystal balls lined up behind the counter.

There were some staves and wands around… pretty much what you would expect for a magic shop.

Come to think of it though, I had no idea how you were supposed to learn magic.

"Before that, is this young lady and the young man there your only traveling companions?"

"Huh? Oh… yeah."

I caught Raphtalia's and Shirou's gaze, and we nodded.

"Then wait right there for a moment, please."

She went behind the counter, took a crystal ball off of the shelf and began chanting a spell over it.

"Yes. Now then, Shield Hero, please look deep into the ball."

"Um… Okay."

I had no idea what to expect, but I looked deep into the ball.

Something was shining, but I couldn't really see anything in particular.

"Yes, yes, it seems that you, Shield Hero, are suited to learning recovery and support magic."

"Huh?"

Was she looking to see what kind of magic I was best suited to?

If only she'd told me earlier, I would have had some idea of what was going on… Oh well, it wasn't like I had any room to complain, but she could have explained herself a little better.

"Next I'll take a look at the nice young lady behind you."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Raphtalia stepped forward and looked deep into the crystal ball.

"Yes, yes, that only makes sense. The young raccoon girl seems best suited for light and shadow magic."

"Why do you say that it only makes sense? Is that common knowledge?"

"Yes, the raccoon people are said to control phantoms that contain both the refractive properties of light and the indefinite properties of shadow."

I was starting to understand. They were like the raccoons or tanuki of my own world. In my own Japan, people often said that tanuki were shapeshifting creatures that could take on human form. Apparently that way of thinking was something our universes had in common.

"And now, how about yourself?"

I looked a bit worried at Shirou who just shrugged.

He stared into the ball.

Images of weapons flashes and then the crystal ball flashed brightly.

"Oh my! I never seen this before,I am sorry but I never heard of this kind of magic, I can't discern it"

Shirou then smiled I could guess what he was thinking..

"Okay, so what is all this about?"

"Ah...Yes, well, this is what I was hoping to give you."

The old lady said, and handed us three books.

More books! I couldn't read them at all, not a single word, but everyone was showering me in books that day.

"I'd really like to give you a crystal ball, but if I did I would put myself out of business…"

"Why's that?"

"Don't you know, Shield Hero? If you can free the magic that is sealed in a crystal ball, you'll learn it instantly."

What?! So I could learn to use magic even if I wasn't able to read the books?

"Quite a while ago, the country went ahead and ordered a large number of crystal balls for the four heroes. Haven't you heard anything about this?"

"Not a word."

Thanks to that Trash, no doubt. He must have given the crystal balls to the other heroes after I'd left.

He went out of his way to intentionally exclude me from everything… Ugh… Just thinking about it made me want to murder the man.

"The magic books are not an easy read—that's for sure. But if you apply yourself, you'll eventually be able to learn a good amount of spells from those."

That was probably why there was only one crystal ball, but a wide variety of magic books. Of course, they were only worth something if you were capable of reading them.

"I'm sorry…"

"Oh don't be! Just getting these books will be a huge help!"

Raphtalia smiled and answered. I nodded along.

"How much magic do you think we can learn from these?"

"Well, those are all books for beginners. For anything more advanced… Think I could ask you to purchase anything additional?"

"Oh, sure."

"I could probably teach you the spells myself, but the Shield Hero is very busy, is he not? I suppose you can't just hang around the castle town?"

"That's true."

She did have a business to run, after all. She was cutting into her own profits to give us these books, so it didn't seem right to complain about it.

"Thank you."

I said it in a rather difficult way, but we received the books she offered and left the magic shop.

"Geez…"

I sighed without thinking. I had never really liked studying, so what was I supposed to do now?

Anyone with half a brain knew that the best course of action would be to buckle down, learn to read, and then study the books to learn new recipes and magic.

Of course that's what they would say.

I found myself wondering if there was some skill I could equip to make it easier, something like "other world language translation." There might have been medicinal recipes stored in the shield somehow. If I looked for them, I might even find them. But what would end up taking more time? Learning to read or finding the shield that would give me the recipes directly?

The reading might be cheaper but if you considered the time investment it wouldn't be. And it would entail getting new materials to experiment with also.

I still kept coming back to the idea of the translation skill, and every time I thought of it my desire to learn to read just shrunk even more.

"Let's study up on that magic!"

Raphtalia said to me.

"But I don't know how to read the writing here…"

"I know. That's why we should do it together."

"Yeah… I suppose that only makes sense."

It did seem like a good idea to get some new recipes under my belt.

"That reminds me—how much time do we have until the next wave comes?" Shirou asked.

"Huh? Oh, wait a second."

I referenced the icon in the corner of my field of vision.

Apparently this whole system was called "status magic" and everyone in this world could use it.

As for me, my attack rating was as low as possible, but my defense rating was through the roof.

Among the other icons there, there was another one that only the heroes could see. I focused my energies on it, and a clock appeared that indicated the amount of time remaining until the next wave was to arrive.

It looked like forty-five days and fourteen hours.

"Looks like we have forty-five whole days!"

So they didn't come every month?!

Well, it's not like we had two months or anything, but that reminds me of something: we hadn't been summoned here until after the first wave had already come. That meant that the frequency could be different than we had previously thought. If I thought about all the time I'd spent on my own before I teamed up with Raphtalia, it seemed to add up.

Over one month left some room for interpretation.

"Well, having extra time is a good thing."

And if I thought about all the preparations we really should be making, it wasn't exactly like we had time to spare.

"Anyway, are we done here, for now?"

"I think so. Let's see, we sold our extra medicines, and got those books from the magic shop. That should be it."

I went over it all with Raphtalia. If we forgot something and had to come back, we'd just lose that much time.

"Then let's get some breakfast and go level up."

"Okay."

I was surprised with the meal. My sense of taste had finally returned.

I'd nearly forgotten how delicious food could be. It was invigorating.

**Mortar Shield: conditions met**

**Beaker Shield: conditions met**

**Druggist's Mortar Shield: conditions met**

**Mortar Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: new compounding**

**Beaker Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: liquid compounding bonus**

**Druggist's Mortar shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: collection skill 2**

"Seems like you gotten new shield's there" Shirou said.

I blinked and noticed that it was true! and as usual it was support based, not bad.

We finished our meals and decided to leave the castle town and make our way to Riyute. There should be some monsters along the way that were perfect for leveling up at our current levels. Unlike the other heroes, I didn't already know where the best leveling up and hunting spots were. So I either needed to find them myself or ask around and see what I could get other people to tell me.

I opened the map and gave it a quick look-over. There didn't seem to be anywhere that was very convenient, but it seemed like there were a few spots that would work well enough for our purposes. Granted, it wasn't a race—but even still, the idea of falling behind the other heroes grated on my nerves. And besides, fighting an unknown monster, and winning, would get me new skills and shields to work with. It didn't seem like a bad idea.

I've neglected to explain myself fully. There are a bunch of different forms my shield can take, and they all have different abilities. Unfortunately, most of them were just status and ability boosts, so they weren't a ton of help at the moment.

They were mostly defense boosts because I was working with a shield… at least that was my theory. Even still, aside from defense boosts, my agility, stamina, magic, and SP ratings, everything except for attack, were rising as well. That was how I was able to make it through the last wave unscathed.

We were walking down the road.

"You know, I wonder if I could absorb the enemies from the wave into my shield?"

We'd left in a big hurry, so I hadn't even thought to try it. But I definitely wanted to try it now, as I needed to do whatever I could to make my shield stronger.

We were approaching the fields around Riyute, and there were dead enemies from the wave laying around here and there.

**Inter-Dimensional Locust Shield: conditions met**

**Inter-Dimensional Lower Bee Shield: conditions met**

**Inter-Dimensional Zombie Shield: conditions met**

**Inter-dimensional Locust Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: defense 6**

**Inter-dimensional Lower Bee Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: agility 6**

**Inter-Dimensional Zombie Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: inventory rot resistance (small)**

I butchered the enemies further to see if any of their parts would result in additional shields.

But apparently there wasn't enough of the materials remaining for most of them, and I was only able to unlock one more.

**Bee Needle Shield: conditions met**

**Bee Needle Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: attack 1**

**Special Effect: Needle Shield (small), Bee Poison (paralysis)**

I figured that was pretty much what I'd expected, and we continued on to the village. On the way, we came across a group of villagers removing a chimera's corpse

.

"Hey."

"Oh! The Shield Hero."

No doubt thanks to what we'd been through during the wave, the villagers greeted me warmly.

"Was this guy the boss from the wave?"

I looked at the size of the body and felt sweat drip down my forehead.

I don't know how to describe it. It was a chimera, but there was something about it that made it look different than the other monsters I'd encountered in this world. I don't know if it was the coloring, or some other more biological characteristic. It was hard to describe in concrete terms.

"It's a terrible thing."

"It sure is."

I agreed with what they were saying. It looked like the other heroes and knights had torn the thing apart for materials. The basic shape was still intact, but the skin and flesh were torn to shreds in places.

"Can I have a little of it?"

"Of course. We were just wondering what we should do with it. We were going to bring it back to the village and process it into equipment. Sound good?"

"Not a bad idea, but it doesn't look like there is anything of use left."

The skin was all ripped up, so they couldn't make any good armor from it. Still, they might be able to find a use for the flesh and bones, and maybe the snake tail.

The head hadn't been cut off. It looked like there were three heads, and yet…

Raphtalia and I set to work butchering the remains and letting the shield absorb whatever it could.

**Chimera Meat Shield: conditions met**

**Chimera Bone Shield: conditions met**

**Chimera Leather Shield: conditions met**

**Chimera Viper Shield: conditions met**

**Chimera Meat Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: cooking quality improvement**

**Chimera Bone Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: shadow resistance (medium)**

**Chimera Leather Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: defense 10**

**Chimera Viper Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: skill: Change Shield,**

**Antidote Compounding up,**

**Poison Resistance (medium)**

**Special Effect: Snake Venom Fang (medium), Hook**

The last one seemed to have a lot of good bonuses, and the defense rating was pretty high.

But to equip it, it looked like you needed to be at a pretty high level, and on top of that you needed to have a lot of other chimera shields unlocked. I wouldn't be able to use it for a little while, but I got the feeling that it would be my main shield by the time the next wave arrived.

"What are you doing with the rest?"

"We were just going to bury it, so take whatever you like."

"Hm…"

It felt like it was going to waste somehow, but still… it looked like there was only flesh and bones left. The bones should keep just fine, but the meat? I couldn't think of anything to do with it but dry it out and make jerky. Not that it looked like it would taste good.

But hey, I bet they could be materials for some kind of magical potion, but even if they could be, who would buy them from me? I had no idea. They'd give me trouble if they started rotting, and what if I stored them improperly and it came back to life or something?

Sure, the same could be said about the bones, but I still felt better about them than I did about the meat. At the same time, what was I so worried about?

"All right, we'll take what we can carry."

"There's quite a lot though, Hero."

"You'll let me store it in the village, won't you?"

"Well, if that is your request, Hero…"

"You can hang up the meat to dry. If someone who wants it stops by, go ahead and sell it. But set aside a little for me. It might make you enough money to rebuild. If the meat and bones came from the wave of destruction, there must be some people who will want to study it. You could make some money that way."

"I suppose you are right, Hero."

The villagers wanted money to rebuild, so they followed my instructions.

I let the shield absorb the guts and anything that looked like it would rot quickly, then we set off for the village. When we arrived, dusk was already on us.

The village was half-destroyed, and the remaining villagers were all living in the relatively unaffected buildings. The village chief prepared a room for us in the inn, which seemed to be in relatively good shape, and so we were able to get a good rest that night.

"I'd like to stick around and help them rebuild, but I don't think we have the time to spend worrying about all this."

The villagers were doing all they could to take care of us. I could understand being grateful for my help in disposing of the chimera corpse, but I didn't know how to feel about the free room and board.

"I know how you feel. I sure wish we could do something to help them all."

Some of the literate villagers drafted me a table of characters so that I might learn how to read their language.

It was something like th tables in Japanese, or the alphabet in English

All 3 of us then begun to learn the script of this world and managed to learn the basics, Shirou it seems was quite good at it, must be due to his work as a freelancer, you would need to speak other languages after all.

**The next day**

Raphtalia and myself slept in and we woke up due to the grunting outside, it was Shirou and was with a boken, he had a strange look in his eyes. he then noticed us and waved, he went to a nearby stream and poured a bucket of water over himself.

"You guys also well?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, we just woke up to be honest" I replied.

"Good go ahead and eat and we going to train for a bit" Shirou said with a smile.

Raphtalia and I shivered.

**After the late breakfast**

Haaah… I was panting, Raphtalia was on the floor spread eagle like as she had a labored breathing.

With a practice sword he had systematically beaten us.

He gave us pointers as he attacked where he had a weak defense and showed us tactics.

There is no need for fair play, had anything in your disposal.

I tried to do the same thing I did with Motoyasu but he dispatched the monsters before they even reached him.

Raphtalia had used that as an advantage and attacked, only to be violently countered.

Yes, I learned more and more with him.

He was a much better candidate for a hero than any of us 4… even more than those 3.

For some reason, while I got only a pittance of EXP when fighting monsters, I actually got a rather massive amount of it when we practiced, even Raphtalia. Not only thay but my mastery and skills also got better, I learned the nuances of combat and got mire skilled with the shield, only using its special skills in order to get a bigger advantage or to create a hole for Raphtalia to exploit.

Apparently it was a way to compensate the fact that when in the party and killed monster we only got a pittance.

This fact was great news, even if we leveled up on our own, our skills would be lacking, something akin to giving a newborn a fighter jet.

However, he asked NOT to use healing potions after practice, somethibg about muscles and natural regeneration and making them stronger.

We had gone at it for a good 3 hrs.

Raphtalia attacked quite a lot, I went in and tried to break his rhythm, but he just changed it, he was a willy bastard.

At the 3 hour mark both myself and Raphtalia were on the floor sweating buckets and breathing heavily and with a lot of welts and bruises.

We went to the lake to clean up and headed back to eat lunch that was made by Shirou.

HOLY CRAP! The food at the banquet could not hold a candle to this!

Wait, hold on… this seemed like a mistake.

**Food bonus: heavenly meal provides +5 vitality +5 SP and boost healing and SP recovery by x1.5**

**Gourmet's shield: conditions met**

**Gourmet's shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: cooking quality improvement (massive)**

I blinked in surprise. It seems even the shield acknowledged Shirou's cooking prowess.

We rested up and even lend a hand, albeit I did so begrudgingly.

When night fell we turned in for the night.

**The next day**

Raphtalia woke me up, she heard something moving and ended up being the egg, it seemed like it was about to hatch!

I'd set the egg we'd bought by the window for the night, and Raphtalia had noticed a fine crack down the side.

You could just see something through the crack, something soft, like feathers or fur.

"Is it…?"

I was interested to see what hatched so I went over to have a look.

The cracks spread and opened with an audible crackle, and a baby monster's face popped through the hole.

"Cheep!"

It was like a small pink chick. It was covered in soft feathers, and there was a piece of eggshell still sitting on its head, like a hat. It looked at me.

"Cheep!"

It chirped and suddenly flew up at me, bouncing into my face. It didn't hurt at all, but I was surprised the thing was so energetic, having just been born and all.

"What is this monster called? It looks like a bird, is it a PikyuPikyu?"

PikyuPikyu were liked deformed little condors that couldn't fly very well. The monster looked like it could have been a baby PikyuPikyu. It did have a sharp beak though, so I could expect better attacks from it than I could have from a balloon or something.

"Oh… you know I don't really know all that much about monsters…"

Raphtalia looked just as confused as I did.

"Fine then, let's go ask the villagers if they know what it is."

If it was a monster that was approved for sale at a shop, it couldn't have been very dangerous. If I asked, I could probably get an answer out of someone. I reached out my hand for the little bird, and it hopped onto my palm, then flew to my shoulder, and finally jumped up on my head.

"Cheeeeeeep!"

It kept cheeping and rubbing its face against mine. It was kind of cute.

"Oh look! It thinks you are its parent, Naofumi-sama."

"Must be some kind of imprinting."

I'd already registered it on my status screen, and I was the first thing it saw after it was born. I suppose it was only natural that it thought I was its father.

I decided to clean up the shards of eggshell, and when I did my shield began to react to them. Come to think of it, if I let the shield absorb them, it might tell me what kind of monster I was dealing with. So I held up a piece of eggshell and let the shield absorb it.

**Monster User Shield: conditions met **

**Monster Egg Shield: conditions met **

**Monster User Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: monster maturation adjustment (small)**

**Monster Egg Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: cooking skill 2**

It wasn't exactly what I had been expecting. But it still looked like it would be useful, so I switched my shield from Slave User Shield II (which I'd been using to unlock its ability) to the Monster User Shield.

"Did you figure it out?"

"No, it unlocked something else."

I still didn't know what kind of monster this chick was. I sure hoped the villagers could tell me something about it.

We set out walking around the half-ruined village, and I started thinking about where a good place to level up might be.

The most efficient place, considering our levels, was probably the swamp area to the west of the village. The last time we had been in the area we went to the mountains in the north, so I was hoping to find another place to go. I spotted some passing villagers, and they called out to me.

"Hello there, Shield Hero."

"Morning."

"Good morning!"

All in all, I'd spent about a week there, and after I protected them all during the wave, I guess most of them had come to recognize me.

One of them bowed very deeply to me, which I found awkward.

"Cheep!"

The little chick on my head chirped out a greeting of its own.

"What's that?"

The villagers all looked at the bird on my head.

"What happened?"

They pointed their fingers at the bird and asked in unison.

"I bought an egg from a monster trainer."

"Ah, gotcha."

"Do you know what kind of monster this is?"

They leaned in to get a better look.

"Hmm… Yes… I think it looks like a Filolial. Don't you think so?"

"The big birds that pull the carriages?"

If they were right, that meant that I had still made a little return on my investment—considering how much it would cost to buy a Filolial. If they were right…

"Well I'm not completely sure, but there is a small ranch at the edge of town. You might want to stop by and ask over there."

"Good idea. Let's go."

Raphtalia and I found out where the manger of the ranch lived, and decided to stop by his house.

Apparently the ranch had been hit pretty hard during the wave, and he had lost more than half of the monsters he had been raising.

"Okay, but is this little thing actually a Filolial?"

I asked the man there, and he nodded.

"Yes, it certainly does look like a baby Filolial."

He held the chick in his hand, and only answered after he carefully looked it over.

"Yes, it is a very common variety of Filolial, but they have trouble staying calm without a cart to pull."

"What kind of a way to raise a monster is that?

"Why, does it sound strange?"

Hmmm… I guess if you had been born and raised here, you wouldn't find things like this mysterious.

Come to think of it, it might have been that the monster had a natural desire to protect its nest or its eggs, and that the monster trainers had just taught the monsters to fix their protective desire on carts instead.

"Well I guess it's not a loss then. Kind of a win, really."

If adults sold for 200 pieces of silver, and I was able to buy a baby for 100 pieces of silver, then it wasn't really a bad deal at all.

"Cheep!"

The baby Filolial was chirping from its perch on my head.

"What does this thing eat?"

"You should start her on cooked beans, mushed into a puree. Something soft. Once she grows up they aren't picky. They'll pretty much eat anything once they are adults.

"Gotcha. Thanks."

I even surprised myself at how quick and sincere my thanks were because, honestly, up until now I'd sort of considered everyone in this world to be my enemy. I was feeling better these days though. I wonder if it was because of what Raphtalia did for me back at the castle.

Anyway, they were selling boiled beans back at the village, so I might as well pick some up.

"What should we name it?"

Raphtalia was petting the little chick when she asked.

"Why do we have to give it a name? We might end up selling it, you know?"

If we went around naming things, we might get attached. That would only make it harder to sell the thing if that was what we decided to do in the future.

"Are you just going to call it 'chick' and 'Filolial?'"

"Hm…"

She was right, that would make things

harder than they needed to be.

"You're right. Why don't we call it "Filo?"

"Thays very creative,original even" Shirou said with some snark.

"Oh give me a break."

"Cheep!"

The little bird let out a loud and satisfied chirp, as if it understood that we had given it a name.

We thanked the rancher and left. Then we bought some boiled beans, had lunch for ourselves, and set out on the road.

"Where are we off to today?"

"Cheep?"

"Right, well, I don't really know anywhere around here that is good for leveling up, so I guess we will just have to search for ourselves. Let's just do what we've done the whole time."

"Okay."

Now that I knew I could depend on Raphtalia, I felt like the battles would be easier than they had been.

Filo was chirping from where it sat on my head. It was loud, but I kind of liked it.

"It's huge! That frog is huge!"

We'd gone to the swamplands to the west of Riyute to hunt monsters, but I wasn't able to hide my surprise at the first one I saw.

But let's be fair here. You might run into giant toads or something when you play an RPG, but if you saw one in real life, you'd be pretty surprised too.

So when this giant frog, "Big Frog" they're called, hopped over to me, and I saw that it was as tall as my waist, I screamed. I was reminded of what happened to a certain goddess that was taken to another world and how she and a few of her companions ended up.

"I'm going!"

"Wait! Raphtalia!"

Before I could restrain the Big Frog, Raphtalia jumped ahead of me.

When it came time to battle, we had agreed that I was to take the lead. If this was an MMORPG, it only made sense to do so because it was dangerous to approach a new monster when you didn't know its stats. What if the thing was stronger than we were?

If it was, we might not get out with just scrapes and bruises. It might be a mistake we'd have to pay for with our lives.

"Hiya!"

Raphtalia ignored my cry and dashed at the Big Frog with her sword.

The Big Frog let out a deafening screech, as if her attack had surprised it.

Dammit! What was she thinking? What happened to our plan? I was supposed to go in first and hold the monster down for her!

The Big Frog puffed up its cheeks, and then sent its razor sharp tongue flying at Raphtalia.

"Watch out!"

I ran forward and caught the brunt of the attack with my shield.

I couldn't allow Raphtalia to be injured.

"Cheep!"

Filo was excited on my head. It felt like the thing was running in circles, shadow boxing.

"I'll hold it down, so you just calm down!"

"But I…"

"Quiet!"

What was going on? It was like Raphtalia and I were not on the same page. I'd never felt that way prior to the wave. What could it mean?

If Raphtalia were to end up hurt, I'd feel terrible. I'd feel like we weren't honoring the memory of her parents. I'd made up my mind to protect her, to serve as her new father.

The Big Frog turned to me and sent its razor-sharp tongue flying in my direction.

Yes! I reached out and grabbed the tongue from the air. It made a sound like metal clanging against my fist.

Using the rope and chimera shield I hooked his tinge and tied it to a large rock.

"Go!"

"Okay!"

Raphtalia lunged at the frog with her sword drawn, her eyes flashing, like she'd just been waiting for my signal.

The Big Frog fell quickly and easily, and we both received experience points.

Nice. It was worth more than the porcupines had been.

"Huff."

Raphtalia was looking me over, and she seemed disappointed. Her tenacity was starting to get the better of her, and I'd have to say something about it. If she didn't learn to hold herself back a little, then we might both end up dead.

"Raphtalia, let's be a little more cautious… okay?"

"But we don't have much time until the next wave comes. Shouldn't we defeat as many enemies as we can? Shouldn't we level up as much as we possibly can?"

"We have a month and a half. That's plenty of time. Let's take it slow. You don't want to overdo it and end up bedridden, do you?"

"You're right. But I… I want to be stronger!"

At least she agreed with me… Wait, did she?

I didn't know where all the good monsters were, like the other heroes did. So we didn't have any other options for efficient leveling up.

"Gugeeeeeeh!"

What the? I turned at the sudden sound and saw something twice the size of the Big Frog. It was a purple Big Frog, and there was a Gray Salamander with it—and they were running straight for us.

"Pii!"

Filo was running circles around my head, apparently ready for a fight.

It wasn't going to be much good in a fight yet, and it would be dangerous to hang out on my head, so I stuffed the little thing into my armor.

"Pii!"

"I'm going!"

"No! Let me go first!"

"What if you get hurt, Naofumi-sama?! Didn't you buy me so that I could fight for you?!"

"If the thing is strong enough to hurt me, just think about what it could do to you. I didn't buy you to get you hurt! It might have been different back then… but now you need to take care of yourself!"

"Naofumi-sama …"

I turned my gaze to the monsters, the Amethyst Big Frog and the Gray Salamander, raised my shield, and rushed them. Unfortunately my attack rating wasn't high enough to do much damage. They spit a viscous, poisonous-looking liquid at me, and I blocked it with my shield.

"Go!"

"Okay!"

She ran at them and quickly cut them with her sword. They fell easily. I wonder if her new weapon was that strong? The armor was better than I had been expecting. I had to hand it to the old guy at the weapon shop.

I butchered the monsters and let the shield absorb the parts.

The frog meat looked gross, and was probably poisonous. I decided not to bother trying to sell it.

"Pii!"

Filo crawled out from my armor, walked over to the defeated monsters, and struck a defiant pose over their bodies, as if it had just killed them itself.

I wanted to ask what the thing was doing, but it was kind of cute, so I just let it go.

We walked around the area for a while longer, defeating monsters all the time. We were leveling up relatively efficiently.

We could abuse the "bug" that Shirou was when we trained (AKA get our asses handed to us) with him, however… even if we could level 4 times with him, the end result was that we ended up so tired and sore. Hiwever the benefits far outweighted the cons.

He had to carry us back to the room.

By the time evening fell, I could tell that I had grown, and Filo had too. The results were:

Naofumi: LV 30

Raphtalia: LV 35

Filo: LV 12

Shirou: #$€£¥₩

Filo hadn't contributed to the battles at all, but had still received enough experience points to level up quickly. It looked like it had grown too.

That was good. I'd heard that young demi-humans matured along with their rising levels, so I guess it was only natural to expect monsters to level up in a similar way.

That must have been it…

The little chick was not so large and heavy that it was hard to hold in both hands. It was also, how to put it, rounder? It was like a giant steamed bun. Its feathers were larger, and covered its body now, and the whole guy had changed from a light pink to a darker pink.

**Monster User Shield II: conditions met**

**Monster User Shield II: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: monster status adjustment (small)**

I hadn't noticed when Raphtalia grew before my eyes, but even I couldn't help but notice the dramatic transformation the little bird had undergone.

"Piyo."

It even chirped differently. It was heavy, so I put it down, and it walked around authoritatively.

Grumble…

I'd heard its stomach grumbling for a little while. Then it was louder than both myself and Raphtalia. I'd made sure to buy a lot of food for it, but apparently the bird had already run out. The rancher said that they could eat anything, so I kept feeding it anything that looked like food, like piles of hay we'd found on the road. It ate all of it, and still seemed hungry. That must have been proof of how quickly it was growing.

"Um… Naofumi-sama?"

"I know… Monsters sure are amazing."

To think that it had grown this much in the course of a single day… It wouldn't be long before it could carry us!

It was great, and something to look forward to. If it grew to be really big but was still as immature as a baby, then it could spell trouble down the line. I went to the status screen and set its settings to strict.

We went back to the inn, and I asked the innkeeper where we could keep Filo. He led us to the horse stables, which were lined with hay for Filo to make itself a bed.

"Huh? Why are the Chimera bones and meat in here?"

The meat hadn't started to rot at all, so it must have been good for keeping. Or maybe it didn't rot because the monster was from another dimension.

"We decided to hang it up here and wait for it to soften a bit. That should make further processing easier."

"Huh…"

But they weren't going to use it for food… And they wanted to process it.

"Then we will smoke it or make jerky. Once it's done we can look for buyers. There have already been some people who stopped buy and asked for some."

"Sounds good to me."

The Chimera had been very large, so they needed to use a lot of space to store the remains. It was probably the size of two full-grown cows. It probably wasn't going to make for very good food, but it seemed like there was too much there to dedicate to researchers only.

"Piyo."

Grumble…

Was it already hungry again? I'd bought new food on our way back to the village, and had already fed it. But I guess it had already gone through our stores. Geez, where was it fitting all that food?

Pikee, Pikee, Pikee…

Was that its bones creaking? Was it already growing?

"I can't believe how much this grew over the day. You might be in over your head, eh?"

The innkeeper looked concerned.

"It's only at level 12."

"Huh? Level 12?"

The innkeeper shot a surprised glance at Filo.

"To grow this much in only a few days after its birth! Well, I'd swear it was at level 20! You're very impressive, Hero."

Yeah, well… I was using maturation adjustment, so its quick maturation was probably due to that. Every time I checked its status, the numbers were different. So I guess it really was growing very quickly.

"Piyo!"

Filo was chirping happily. It would grow up quickly.

I rubbed the bird's head until I was sure it was sleeping. Once it was snoring, Raphtalia and I went back to our room.

Then I went back to studying the writing system of this world. There was so much to do. I was getting tired.

**The next morning**

The next morning I woke up and tip-toed out of the room so that I wouldn't wake Raphtalia, who had been up all night studying, on my way to go see Filo.

"Gah!"

A loud, wild voice greeted me when I entered the stables. Then I saw Filo. It had grown since the previous night.

Where it had just been a round thing before, now its legs and neck had grown out. It stood there, looking something like an ostrich. It was changing so quickly! And it was growing so differently from any of the birds I knew anything about. It was now so tall that it stood up level with my chest. Still—it wasn't big enough to ride yet.

Grumble…

So it was already hungry again? Good thing I'd stopped off to buy some food.

If it was growing this much in a day, I don't know… Something about it was almost scary.

"Look at you! And you just hatched yesterday!"

"Gah!"

I found myself smiling just looking at the thing.

It wasn't like I just discovered some deep-rooted love of animals or anything like that. I was just thrilled at the possibilities. I started thinking over all the things it could do for me once it was big enough. If it could pull a cart, I'd love to have it do so.

Its feathers had grown again, and changed colors. Now they were a mix of white and very light pink.

In an effort to clean up a bit, I let the shield absorb some of the feathers.

**Monster User Shield III: conditions met**

**Monster User Shield III: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: maturation adjustment (medium)**

Man, just imagine what I could have gotten if I'd given the shield some of its blood. I should give Raphtalia another haircut and try absorbing more of her hair.

Filo had only just been born, but here it was running around and happy.

"Gah!"

It wasn't a dog, but I picked up a twig and threw it as far as I could for Filo to fetch. We played that way for a while.

Filo was so fast that sometimes it caught the twig before it had a chance to fall. Then it brought the twig back. It was pretty talented. Anyway, I played with Filo until Raphtalia woke up. It was kind of refreshing, this whole "pet" thing.

Thinking back on it, people back in my world kept dogs and cats. They were pretty cute.

A long time ago, at my school, there was a wild cat. It was really nervous around people, and everyone said that it wouldn't approach you if you didn't have food. But it approached me.

In elementary school we had a class in which we took care of animals, and everyone else complained about the chickens because they pecked. But they never pecked me. So I guess you could say that I sort of liked animals. Or at the very least, I didn't hate them.

"Mmm… There you are, Naofumi-sama. And look at that smile! I don't think I've ever seen you so happy."

Raphtalia had woken up and come to find me. She entered the stables looking grumpy.

She had a twisted, tired smile on her face.

"What is it?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Gah!"

Filo was lightly tapping at Raphtalia with its beak.

"Sigh… I guess there's no getting around it…"

Raphtalia smiled, and reached out her hands to lightly pet Filo's cheeks.

"Gah…"

Filo looked really happy and squinted its eyes as it saddled up next to Raphtalia and rubbed against her.

"I wonder where we should go today?"

"Good question. You'd probably like to try and save on food costs for Filo, so how about we head out to the plains to the south of here?"

"Hmm… That's a good idea."

There were tons of different grasses growing in that area, and plenty of them could be used for medicine. Raphtalia was right… it would be a good place.

Our immediate goal was to get the best equipment that we could, and we'd need money for that.

"Right on. Okay, let's get going."

"Gah!"

"Okay!"

So we went out to the fields and fought monsters until we leveled up.

**Naofumi: LV 35**

**Raphtalia: LV 38**

**Filo: LV 15**

**Shirou:&$ €£₩**

As for the grasses, I spent most of my energy on looking for things that Filo could eat, so we didn't end up actually collecting very much for medicine. I did go ahead and let the shield absorb all the things we found, but I didn't get much out of it except for a couple of small status bonuses.

And I still hadn't found a shield that would teach me intermediate compounding recipes.

That evening, Filo grew into what appeared to be a full-grown Filolial.

"Sure is growing up quick! Normally it would take them three months or more to reach this size…"

The innkeeper and the rancher were both surprised. They couldn't believe how fast Filo was growing.

It must have been because of the maturation adjustment, both small and medium, that I was using.

"If only I thought to absorb the ink way back when I bought Raphtalia…"

"Ahaha…"

I wondered if Raphtalia wished that she, too, could grow that quickly.

Creaaakkkkk.

I could hear the creaking and cracking of bones again. Filo must be growing.

"Gah!"

Filo was standing right in front of me, and looked to be large enough to ride.

"You want to carry me around?"

"Gah!"

Filo called out and dipped its head for me to climb onto its back, as though that were the most obvious answer.

"Thank you."

I didn't have reigns, or a saddle, but I wondered if it would be okay. The thing was practically asking me to climb on, so I did. The shield would help me survive any falls—my defense rating was through the roof.

As for comfort… Well, the feathers helped with that. If I could find my balance, it wouldn't be bad at all.

I'd never ridden a horse, but I'd ridden a dog once. When I was a kid, some other kid in the neighborhood had a dog, and they let me ride it once. The owners said that they had never been able to ride it, but it wasn't any problem for me. The dog carried me around just fine.

"Gah!"

Filo quickly stood up.

"Argh!"

I was so high off the ground, and from my vantage everything looked… different. So this is what the world would look like from Filo's back.

"Gaaaaah!"

I thought that Filo was just calling out in happiness, but then it suddenly took off running!

"Um… Hey!"

"N….Naofumi-sama!"

Dash! Dash! We were running!

It was so fast! I'd see something, and then it would be behind us just as quickly. I heard Raphtalia calling for us, but she was already far in the distance.

Dash! Dash!

Filo circled the village once before returning to the stables. Then it sat down and let me off.

"Are you all right?!"

Raphtalia looked worried as she ran over to me.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Filo is so fast!"

Filo didn't look tired in the least and soon turned to preening its feathers.

Filo ran much quicker than I had been expecting. This might have been my best purchase yet.

"All right, that seems like enough for today. Let's head back to our room."

Something had a grip on my armor's collar. I turned to see Filo there, looking back at me.

"What is it?"

"Gaaah!"

It almost looked like it was crying. It kept balking at me.

"Huh?"

I gave up and turned to leave again, but once again it pulled at my collar.

"What is it?"

"Gaah!"

Filo's feet were digging into the ground, like it was determined to make a stand.

"What, you want to play more?"

Raphtalia asked, and Filo shook its head. Could it understand what we were staying?

"Are you lonely?"

It nodded.

"Gaah!"

It opened its wings and cried out.

"But there's nothing we can…"

I certainly didn't want to sleep in the stables, and I don't think the innkeeper would be happy if we brought a huge monster into the room.

"Let's stay with it until it falls asleep!"

"Oh… Um… Okay."

The thing was so big, but it had only hatched two days ago. Maybe it was still a baby, and just wasn't ready to be left on its own in the stables overnight. Raphtalia and I decided to do our nightly study session in the stables.

Filo sat in its nest and quietly watched us study.

Piki…

"Geez… Am I ever going to be able to read this stuff?"

"If we can't find a shield to do it, then this is our only option. Besides, if you are always depending on that Legendary Shield, well… it's probably not best for you."

"Raphtalia… You sure don't hold anything back these days."

"That's right. So let's get back to studying so that we can learn magic!"

What was so wrong with wanting things to be easier than they were? I hoped that all this work would actually amount to something. We kept on studying in the stables until we heard Filo's steady snores.

Then we went back to the room, and I tried my hand at compounding some new herbs.

I still couldn't read the recipes, so I was really just guessing.

It was then when Shirou appeared and asked me to step out.

"Listen, I am going to give you something,and I want you to think the Shield copying it to the grain, if I am correct,this will seriously boost your defense even more" Shirou said.

It was a round shield that had 8 circular gems in it in what looked like arrows of some sort?

"You want me to what?"

"If your shield can duplicate it… well it will certainly help you" Shirou said.

I shrugged and then…

My shield took the same shape and form as the shield Shirou had given me.

"I was right to spy on those 3… I learned quite a bit thanks to them" Shirou said with a smirk.

**shield copy success **

**Shield unlocked: Svalinn**

**Quality: Legendary**

**Svalinn ability unlocked: reduction of fire attacks by 35%, +18 defense, +8 attack**

**Note: Svalin is at base power, depending on how you are it will unlock more defensive bonuses and further increase fire resistance.**

My eyes nearly popped out of my eyes.

It seems this shield had some lore to it.

**In Norse mythology, Svalinn is a legendary shield which stands before the sun.**

**The name Svalinn means "cold" or "chill" and is derived from the verb svala means "cool"; svala sér means "to slake one's thirst" and svala-drykkr is an "icing draught".**

**It judges it's welder to see if they have the qualifications to wield it at full power.**

A shield… that could ward the sun?

This… this was insane!

Shirou was smiling at me, "I am glad that worked… even if all I can make are inferior copies it seems your shield completely assimilated and 'fixed' what it was lacking"

He went to his bed "We going to have a big day tomorrow so rest up"

It was hard for me to fall asleep after this gift.

If it wasn't for him…

I fell asleep much later.

Chapter end.


	6. Chapter 6

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Chapter 6: Taxation without Representation

**The day before**

**Night time**

Shirou Emiya, he had decided to leave the party behind and spy on the heroes when the 3 (Naofumi, Raphtalia and Filo) went to sleep.

He had found quite a lot.

First up, it seems that the other 3 heroes have a way to enhance their weapons that is different from each other, item duplication, refinement and drops, they had even more explanations in their help book, he gleaned all he could from a safe distance while reinforcing his eyesight. It also seemed that all 3 hid any info from each other, as a way to out do each other, effectively cutting down their overall combat ability and subsequent potential.

Then he decided to further analyse the king's staff.

"_Well this IS interesting… a vassal weapon wielder was it? Increases magic power and speed of spells, and what's this? I see… he killed the former user and gained rights to it, that weapon is not locked to its user… it's less powerful than the other legendary weapons those 4 have… but it has much less restriccions_" Shiroi thought to himself.

He also learned something that made him disappointed.

The king was a genious… a mind so sharp it could pierce trought anything, a tactical genious.

It was quite a shame all of it became clouded due to his hatred against the demi-humans, which extended tp the shield hero, as the previous iteration was one who defended them. Not only that but he absolutely dotted on his elder daughter to the point that thw younger one was only a shadow fragment of a memory, he dotted on the eldest as he had raised her to continue his legacy of demi-human hatred and thus spoiled her rotten, she became quite a magnificent manipulator and had her father on her pinky, however she was no genius, as all her plans had worked due to the sheer naivete of the heroes and the blind faith of the soldiers that held hatred to the demi-humans.

Also… many of the soldiers belonged to a religion named "The church of the 3 heroes" a religion that solely excluded the shield, as they were human supremacists. They had expended no small fortunes to further stimulate the growth of those 3.

All of them cared a LOT about levels.

But as Naofumi had exceptionally demonstrated, levels don't mean an assured victory, a high level opponent can be defeated quite easily with cunning and skill.

Shirou chuckled a bit, how would Mash react to a new candidate to the Shielder class? or Even Jean Alter, or Angra? as Naofumi would also qualify for the Avenger class.

Shirou then saw a carriage leave towards the town where Motoyasu, the princess and quite a few soldiers were at.

"_this smells like trouble_" he thought to himself.

Reinforcing his body, he dashed out using a shortcut by the forest.

"_The carriage would arrive in 5 hours, taking into account random attacks from monsters… let's day I got 7… I can make it in 4 via the forest_" Shirou thought as he dodged the trees.

He would rest the remaining hours and lend a hand should it be required.

If he traced a noble phantasms like Gae Bulg his speed would shoot through the roof, but he needed to do it this way as part of training.

"_thankfully I have an hour over them_"

And so he rushed all the way over a bit under Noon-ish.

Naofumi and Raphtalia were helping in the reconstruction and they villagers had bartered for his help with a nice cart.

It seems like Filo was eager to pull it around as it kept nudging it.

Shirou returned as earned Naofumi to try and keep his composure and the two guilty of their predicament had come to this town for some reason.

Naofumi was, undoubtedly furious but Raphtalia managed to calm him down somewhat.

It was then when Shirou took a look at Filo.

_"Dear Lord… this bird has the potential to rival a beast of Gaia_" he thought as he looked at the bird.

Then Filo gently nudged at him.

It seemed like… it wanted to comfort him as well.

Shirou kindly patted her as she thrilled in happiness.

By then the two idiots had arrived.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

We were talking it over when I saw someone I recognized from outside of the village. They were in a group, and were running over to us on a carriage pulled by a Knight Dragon.

The leader was in chainmail, with a blinding silver breastplate. He carried a rather conspicuous spear.

That's right. It was Motoyasu and the Bitch. They climbed down from the carriage.

"Hey! All you villagers, let's all gather around, shall we?!"

The busy villagers all set their work aside and started walking over to the intruders. Then the Bitch unrolled a large sheet of parchment and started haranguing everyone.

"Citizens! In recognition for his glorious victories in the last wave of destruction, the King of these lands has granted this man, Motoyasu Kitamura, governorship over these territories."

What? Governorship? To Motoyasu?

Motoyasu, as if he could hear my thoughts, suddenly shouted.

"Which means that I, The Spear Hero, am now in control here. I've been asked to oversee the reconstruction efforts! I expect your cooperation from here on out! Make sure that you have secured proper funding for your projects before you purchase materials!"

"What?!"

The majority of the villagers looked skeptical of their new leader.

That was only natural. During the wave, when the village was under attack, what had the Spear Hero done for them? Nothing! And yet here he was, supposed to be their new leader? Of course they wouldn't accept this new appointment so easily.

Besides, being given governorship for fighting a battle? Why was the Crown so close to Motoyasu?

"You must be mistaken. You see, I am the governor here."

A man in the crowd raised his hand and addressed Motoyasu. That, too, seemed natural. Why would anyone just roll over and accept a random new appointment?

Granted, it was an official order, so I guess there wasn't much they could do by way of rebellion, but still—people were going to be aggravated.

"What are you implying? Are you going to disobey an order from your king?"

"I'm not saying that, only that it seems odd that…"

"Silence!"

The Bitch sure seemed to think she ran the show. I really wanted to walk over and give her a hard smack across the face.

But wait… Did that mean that this village belonged to Motoyasu now? Dammit! That would mean that I had to move on… again. The innkeeper had been letting us stay for free, so I was hoping to stay based in Riyute for as long as I could.

"Ha! What's this? Why are you here, Naofumi?"

He saw me in the crowd and called out to me.

"I've based my activities here."

"Huh? You mean you're still working in a spot like this? Oh man, that's the Shield for you… always way behind. You must understand that this village belongs to Motoyasu now, and he will not tolerate criminals on his lands. Get on your way."

I really wanted to shut her up.

So I guess this means that the Bitch was really the one in control. But what did she want? I could only imagine…

"First order of business: there will now be a toll levied on those entering and exiting the village. If we don't, we will never be able to raise appropriate restoration funds. The fee due upon entrance will be 50 pieces of silver, and the fee upon exit will be 50 pieces of silver. That makes for a total of one gold piece."

"But that's... With taxes like that we'll never be able to survive!"

"Oh, it's not that much money."

Motoyasu clearly had a warped sense of what money was worth to these people.

A piece of gold was… worth a lot of money. For these people to live in relative comfort, they only needed 20 pieces of bronze a day. If you stayed in the inn, a piece of silver would get you a room and a good meal.

Their new taxes were worth 100 days of life. Who could afford to eat with a tax like that?

"What is the problem? Does anyone take issue with our edict?"

"Of course they do."

The Bitch glared at me when I spoke up.

"You've just been appointed governor, and then you show up and levy a huge tax on your first visit? Think about it…"

"You know…uh... he's kind of right, Myne. Think we could drop it to a level that the villagers can afford?" Motoyasu asked Myne.

When he did, she turned to me with demonic fury in her eyes. Just as quickly, it vanished, and she was batting her eyelashes at Motoyasu.

"If we do not learn perseverance along with our pain, the village will never recover from this calamity. The previous governor may consider himself relieved by the authority of the Crown."

"How dare you!" The governor shouted in anger.

The rest of the villagers were shouting also.

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"What are you planning on doing for us?!"

"Now, now… Do you know what it means to revolt against the Crown? Perhaps we will have to teach you."

Bitch raised her hand, and knights came sauntering into the village, mounted on their dragons.

Were they planning on starting a fight? Violent fools!

Motoyasu was looking at them impatiently, like he didn't like that he was being forced to stoop to this level. But he was the 'real' criminal here.

"Hey! Now if you don't…"

Then Myne was suddenly surrounded by a group of men in black, like a group of ninjas.

"Hey…"

"Myne-sama, yes? Surely you have been informed of our arrival. We have brought a message for you."

"What is it?"

One of the ninjas stepped forward and handed her a rolled sheet of parchment.

What, were they assassins or something? I guess things like that existed in this world too.

The Bitch stood there looking pissed off as she read from the parchment. Then all the color drained from her face.

What was it? What did it say?

"Who the hell are you?"

"We are employed by a certain someone. We have reason to believe you know of whom we speak."

"But I…"

Answer them. This is no time to be feigning ignorance! I was about to yell at her when…

"It's a battle!"

The Bitch exclaimed authoritatively.

"What?"

What was she even talking about? What battle? With who? Motoyasu also seemed to have no idea what was going on.

"You must race our dragons to determine the governorship of these lands."

"What the hell?"

I didn't know what was written on that parchment, but it couldn't have been something that stupid.

"If you don't, we won't relinquish control!"

After Myne shouted, the ninjas all began whispering amongst themselves. It sounded like they were talking about what to do once the new governor was appointed.

"Very well then, we will use the fastest monster in this village."

"No."

Myne was pointing in my direction. I was gripping Filo's reigns in my hand, and her finger moved to point at Filo.

"The Shield Hero will race for you."

"But…"

"No… I will stand in for him"

Shirou gently pushed me back as he stood tall.

The bitch grinded her teeth as she looked at him with so much fury even thise who were not directed at flinched at the sheer look of it.

"Are… Are you sure about this?"

Shirou nodded, "don't worry… they won't be able to cheat as they like with me… Trace… On"

With that a beautiful golden saddle appeared "Ummm… yeah, this is definitely 2 ranks below the original, seems like weapons are the only one I can trace without much difficulty," he said.

He saddled Filo who thrilled powerfully and kicked at the ground with much more vigor than before.

It seems like Filolias and dragons did not get along.

"_wonder how she would get along with servants who had dragon element"_

What Shirou had traced, unknown to Naofumi and the rest was a certain saddle used by the Rider Servant Medusa and Rider Perseus… Bellerophon, the bridle of Chivalry.

It enhanced the power of any beast.

Filo, who had a not enviable power, now held the power to rival a grown dragon.

Her power and speed had increased by one whole rank.

**P.O.V Shirou**

"_And now… trace On, structural analysis_" the magic sipped into Filo and saw all imperfections on her and enhanced it by filling it in further enhancing her speed and durability as well as reaction and kinetic vision.

Then I reinforced myself and traced a pair of googles as I would need it.

Motoyasu looked at me and Filo and laughed at us.

"Ahhahaha! Look at the guy on his fat chick! Bwahaha!"

His cohorts were holding their stomachs and laughing forcefully.

I had no idea what they thought was so funny, but I couldn't stand having poor Filo laughed at. I felt blood rising hot up my neck.

"What the hell, Motoyasu?"

"Ha! I mean, I thought it was funny that you were walking around with that thing. And now! Now you say you're going to race on it! Ahahaha!"

"What the hell was so funny?" I said glating at him.

"Ha! You look like a fool! First of all, dragons are way cooler than birds. Second of all, look at that thing! It's got pink all mixed up in its white feathers—obviously you bought yourself a cheap bird!"

"I don't know what color you think it should be…"

I still didn't get what was so funny about it. I honestly hated this guy on principle alone.

I was trying to figure out what

I should do when Motoyasu walked over to Filo, pointing and laughing the whole time.

"But how about you shut your damn mouth?"

"Gahhh!"

Then, once he gotten close enough, Filo reared back and kicked him hard in the crotch.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

I saw it. I saw his laughing face suddenly contort into an expression of confused pain. His whole body spun in drunken spirals, about 80 whole rotations to be exact and he reeled back from the force of the kick.

"Ugh…!"

Man… I'd never been so happy in my whole life. I hadn't even seen it coming. Happiness visits when you least expect it.

"Kyaaaaah! Oh, Motoyasu-sama!"

Ahaha… that kick must have crushed his balls and then some.

It felt so good. That one kick alone was worth all the money I'd spent on Filo so far. That's my monster. It was getting revenge for me. Filo, you'll eat good tonight—I'll see to that, I will ask Shirou to make something special for you.

"Gaah!"

"Coward! How dare you attack Motoyasu-sama!"

"The race hasn't started yet, and besides, if you walk up to a monster and laugh at them, what do you expect?" I said with a cruel smirk as I shrugged.

"Ugh… you bastard."

Motoyasu tottered to his feet. His hands cradled his crotch. The sweat oozing down his face made his pain evident. Even his face had a shade of blue and magenta.

I ran my hand over Filo's head. "So, are we going to start this race?"

"Of course!"

We couldn't be sure he wouldn't try something sneaky, but all we could do is stay on our toes and get it over with.

The Bitch untied a dragon from the cart it had been hitched to, and Motoyasu climbed up onto its back.

"The race will consist of three laps around the village!"

The villagers ran off to draw lines in the dirt, demarcating the course.

"Good luck Shirou-sama. And Filo? You take care of him, okay?"

"Sure."

"Gah!"

"I'll win"

The governor stood before the two of us and raised his hands into the air. When they fell, the race would be on.

"Ready…. Go!"

His hands fell quickly, and they were off!

**P.O.V Shirou**

Fast, this was on a whole different level.

Forget a motorcycle, she was now going as fast as an F1, maybe even faster.

**booom**

"Uh… it seems we broken the sound barrier" I said to myself as Filo had her eyes set in deep concentration. A few windows shattered due to the sonic boom.

Speed… I am speed.

All of the people who came with the princess and Motoyasu had slacked jaws.

Even the dragon did a double-take.

"What… what the hell is up with that overgrown bird!?" the princess shouted.

Naofumi was laughing his ass off as Filo did a second lap and overtook Motoyasu once more.

As much as the princess would have wanted to cheat, she found herself unable to do so as the damn bird was just too fast to get caught in the pitfalls created by earth magic that they created at the start of the race, basically the ground gave up a second AFTER she stepped on it… she was just too Fast! Not to mention all the fireballs, lots of them.

Any spells that did hit her where nullified as her magic resistance was at par with that of a grown dragon now with Bellerephon on.

"Gah!"

Filo called out her victory, and we sauntered over the goal line, far in the lead, and victorious.

"I… I lost…" Motoyasu said as he pitifully finished his second lap.

"It's not fair! He cheated! I demand a rematch!" shouted the princess.

"Cheated? Who are you talking about? Who was the one casting spells?"

I pointed at the unconscious knight.

Me and Filo got to the knight and knocked him out after the last lap, when he tried to cast a ball of fire.

"What are you implying?"

"That guy was casting all sorts of spells to hinder our progress! That's cheating!"

"Wait… was he really?"

Motoyasu chimed in, acting as if he had been unaware the whole time.

"I don't know anything about that. Even if he did cheat, what's that got to do with us? We demand justice!"

So she only wants justice when SHE loses? Ha! Give me a break.

"It didn't look that way to me."

All of the villagers nodded in agreement with the governor's announcement.

"Just as Master Emiya was saying, there are marks on the course left by magical spells. We ran to chase off the knights, so the proof is still there."

"That ruffian or his friends planted that to make us look bad!" she said denying her own action.

"No, he did not."

What? The lady from the magic shop appeared from the crowd of villagers. Oh yeah, she had a grandchild here, she'd said.

"The Shield Hero can only use support and restorative magic. The girl with him can only use light and dark magic, and the youth who raced can't use our magical system therefore neither of them could have formed these holes in the earth.

"Oh, great! The stupid magic shop lady thinks she knows everything now!"

Just as the princess shouted, the ninjas appeared again to surround her.

"It appears obvious that the Spear Hero was the recipient of unfair support. Please come with us." they said in authoritative tone.

Motoyasu spoke softly, and tried to calm the princess down, "We've lost this one, and therefore, as promised, we relinquish control of this village."

"Right. So get the hell out already." Naofumi shouted.

"I won't lose next time." Motoyasu said.

"You lose all the time. Coward."

"I am not a coward!"

"Spear Hero, this is no time to fight. Neither do you, Shield Hero."

The ninjas admonished the Motoyasu gang, and they all left together.

They left the dragon behind.

"We don't need a dragon that lost to the Shield or that other ruffian. Leave it. "

"Kyuuuu," the dragon let out a pitiful cry, and was left behind.

The poor thing. It's not like he had done anything wrong.

A group of villagers walked over and pet the dragon's head before taking its reigns in hand.

"Let's keep him in the village."

"Good idea."

The dragon walked beside the villagers, it's head hung low.

"Wait… give him to me" Shirou said.

The dragon looked at him.

He felt something in him stir.

_The element of the red dragon… the relic of the fey… the man loved by the dragon in form of a woman. A ma of character, unbending like steel. Many paths, many roads. Many ending in tragedy, many do not. Yet this man…_

He was a man loved by the incarnation of Ddraig the red dragon, the monarch of dragons. It's power lingering on this man.

The dragon walked slowly up to me and lowered its head in both reverence and deference.

"_Uh… so I guess this means I will qualify for the Rider class?_" I thought to myself.

**Meanwhile… with Naofumi**

"we won, so give me my prize."

"Naofumi-sama … just like that?"

"This village owes you so much, Shield Hero. Had they imposed a tax the likes of what they were discussing, it would have been the end of our village. Even still, could you wait a few days? If so, we can provide you with funds as well."

"Don't you need the money to make repairs?"

"You know us well."

"What's the point in digging into your repair funds just to pay me? That's not good for anyone. No thanks, but I appreciate the offer."

The last thing I wanted was to end up indebted to anyone. Besides, it would not have helped my bruised reputation. Everyone would think I shook the village down for money.

"Then we will provide you with something very convenient indeed. Tell me, Hero, do you have any interest in traveling sales?"

"Traveling sales?"

"Yes, like when you walk from village to village, town to town, and sell wares. It appears that you are supporting yourself by selling materials and medicines. If you have any interest, we could help you with such matters."

"Huh."

Did they mean a traveling merchant of some sort? In other words, instead of selling to apothecaries, I would sell directly to customers…

I'd have to give it some thought. Up until now, I'd been focused on the production side of things, but if I did what they suggested, I'd get in on the sales side of things too. That should make me a good profit.

"Not to mention, Hero, that you also happen to possess a Filolial. That will get you from place to place with relative ease and speed. If you had it pull a cart, then your business would be that much easier. If you'd like, we could provide you a commercial bill of passage."

"Commercial bill of passage?"

"Yes. Normally, traveling merchants need to visit with the local governor when they first enter a village or town and pay him a certain sum to do business there. However, if you show them the commercial bill of passage, with my seal affixed, then you should not have to pay this fee. I think you would find it quite useful."

I had to think. This farming town was very close to the Melromarc Kingdom, and it was situated conveniently close to trade routes. To be the governor of such a place must have entailed a level of authority and dignity. The villagers were aware that their village was saved during the wave due to my efforts. They must have also heard about my troubled reputation, and all about what the king was doing to me, using any method he could think of to suppress my freedom. They also knew that my reputation would make further business difficult for me, and therefore were offering cooperation.

"I believe it will help you conduct business in spite of your unsavory and quite frankly false reputation. We'd like to remove obstacles from your path, and we think this will make life easier for you."

They were accepting me and being kind. I felt sincere gratitude.

"Thank you. I accept your kind offer."

In truth, it really was wonderful compensation, and it should make it easier to get some decent money. They even offered to build a carriage for Filo.

Great… that sure beat pushing a wheelbarrow.

"Well anyway, let's get back to reconstruction, shall we?"

"Yes."

The villagers nodded along with Raphtalia. We all went back to our own projects.

"Gah!"

Filo was on top of the world, excited to have her very own carriage.

"Great. Let's head to the forest!"

"Okay!"

"Gah!"

I pointed in the direction I wanted to go, and Filo chirped in excitement and started pulling the carriage.

Rattle… Rattle…

Ahh… It was so peaceful, so pleasant.

Rattle, rattle, rattle! Clatter, clatter!

Filo started pulling faster and faster, and soon we were flying down the road.

"You're too fast! Slow down!"

"I don't feel so good…"

Raphtalia was laying down in the back of the carriage, suddenly sick. I guess she got motion sickness.

"You all right?"

"Yes… but… try not to shake the carriage so much."

"I guess you get motion sick, huh?"

"I guess I do. Are you all right, Naofumi-sama?"

"I've never gotten sick yet."

It wasn't just that alcohol didn't affect me. I'd never gotten seasick or carsick either.

Back in elementary school, we'd taken a bus to go on a field trip. I was reading some manga and light novels that I had in my backpack when the person next to me started complaining that they felt sick, and we had to switch seats. Also, I remember that whenever we went to visit my extended family, we had to take a boat. Everyone else in my family got seasick, but not me. I remember playing games on my phone the whole time.

"We'll make sure you relax. Filo and I will make sure that we get to where we are going."

"Thank you. I'll take you up on that offer…"

"Gaaah!"

"Could you maybe go a little slower?"

Filo just kept on running, overjoyed, as though she couldn't hear Raphtalia at all.

All the while Shirou was a bit behind us with his second hand dragon, he was quite a good boy. He even have it a name.

"Fáfnir, the hoarding dragon"

A bit too grandiose as it was a name if an actual mythical dragon, but hey… the dragon liked it.

Also, while Filolias and dragons had bad blood, it seems Filo had became good buds with the dragon, they even played and ate together. it's good she now had a playmate.

Afterwards, Raphtalia threw up on the side of the road. By the time we made it to the forest, she was doing all she could to suppress the nausea.

"Ugh… Ugh…"

Raphtalia's pale face made me feel bad. Maybe I should have slowed the carriage down more.

"Sorry."

"Gah…"

Filo, too, looked downcast, as though guilty.

"I'm… I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. Let's find a place for you to rest."

"Why hello there, Shield Hero."

There was a small house over by the woods, and a villager who looked something like a lumberjack came out from it.

"Yeah, the villagers asked me to come pick up some wood here."

"Um… Is your friend there all right?"

"I think… I dunno, probably not. I'd like to let her get some rest. Do you know of a good place?"

"There's a place in my house she could rest for a while."

The lumberjack led us over to his house, and Shirou lent Raphtalia his shoulder to steady herself on the way. Once we were inside, we laid her down on the bed.

"Let's find some enemies that are easy enough for Filo to take care of in this area. Then we'll just focus on carrying the luggage."

Raphtalia apparently got motion sick rather easily, so we'd have to slow the pace down a bit.

"Do me a favor and load the carriage up with the wood, if you will. We'll be back in a little while."

"Okay."

I unhitched Filo from the carriage, and she looked at the house, then at me.

"Let's go!"

"Gah!"

Considering how badly she had hurt Motoyasu, I was expecting a pretty impressive fight with her.

We went to go walk around the forest.

Once we were under the trees for a while, I was surprised at how few monsters we encountered. Filo and I just kept on walking through the silent forest.

People always talk about how peaceful and relaxing the silence of the forests is, but I'd never understood what they meant until now.

That reminds me, ever since I'd come to this world, I don't think I'd ever had the opportunity to just walk around and enjoy the scenery.

I felt so peaceful now. It must have been the look on Motoyasu's face after he'd taken the brunt of Filo's kick.

No, that's not it.

It was because Raphtalia had believed in me and how Shirou stuck with me trough thick and thin.

And now she was back at that house, sick from the carriage ride along with Shirou, as otherwise I would get less EXP with him around.

I felt… lonely.

Thinking back on it all, we'd really only been together for two or three weeks. And yet it already felt so natural to be together. She was just a little kid back then, and I felt like it had been forever since she'd grown into the young woman she was now.

I'd decided to try and take over the role of her parents… but what, exactly, was I supposed to do? And the wave was still coming.

We still had over a month until the next wave came… and yet…

"If only there was some kind of medicine for motion sickness…"

When I came back Shirou and the lumberjack had loaded the cart with a rather large amount of wood, we put both Filo and Phanphir to pull the wagon and we set to go back to town.

Apparently Shirou had reinforced the cart to be able to take even more weight than usual.

I had managed to acquire quite a good quantities of shields

**White Usapil Shield: conditions met**

**Dark Porcupine Shield: conditions met**

**Usapil Bone Shield: conditions met**

**Porcupine Bone Shield: conditions met**

**White Usapil Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: defense 2**

**Dark Porcupine Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: agility 12**

**Usapil Bone Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: stamina up (small)**

**Porcupine Bone Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: SP up (small)**

A transformation had already started in Filo. Honestly, it had probably started a long time ago, and we just hadn't noticed it. Or, perhaps, we had noticed it but had ignored it.

The next morning I noticed the transformation, and so had Raphtalia. We were both deep in thought.

"Gaah!"

When we went to the stables to check on Filo the transformation was already complete.

Filo was… really no matter how you looked at it, much bigger than any Filolial I'd ever seen before.

The average height for Filolials evened out somewhere around two meters and thirty centimeters. They were a lot like ostriches. But Filo was much stockier, and her neck and head were much larger.

And she stood at two meters, eighty centimeters.

When she stood up, her head hit the ceiling of the stables.

"Did I really buy a Filolial egg? I'm starting to wonder if we didn't end up with something else altogether."

"Yeah… I'm starting to think the same thing."

"Gah!"

Filo swallowed something that she'd been chewing on. I looked around and realized that the Chimera meat was all gone. There'd been like two whole cows' worth of meat, and now it had all vanished without a trace.

Had Filo just finished it off?

"And here I was thinking that his appetite had died off…"

"She's been eating it the whole time!"

"Gah!"

"Ahahahaha!"

"This is not a laughing matter!"

All right… what should we do? For now, at least, we could just pretend that she was a bigger Filolial than average.

Piki…

There was that weird sound again.

"Did you hear that?!"

"Naofumi-sama? Could it be that your shield skills have helped her grow this much?"

"It could be. Sure. I did get a maturation adjustment (medium) bonus from that Monster User Shield III."

"Naofumi-sama … You have a Slave User Shield too, don't you?"

"Yeah. It has a similar maturation bonus on it too."

"You mean… It works on me?"

"Yeah, I unlocked it a long time ago. I can tell it's having an effect on you."

"Noooo!"

Raphtalia screamed and ran from the stables.

"Ra…Raphtalia?!"

"I… I'd been thinking that I felt lighter on my feet more than normal these days. That was you? It's because of you!"

"Hey, calm down!"

"Am I going to get as big as Filo? I don't want to! I'm scared!" she said as she sobbed historically.

"You're not making those weird sounds!"

"You… You're right. Whew! Good thing! I was so scared." she said as she calmed down and became rational once more.

Still, I really couldn't predict what the skill would do to her.

I pictured Raphtalia bulking up and growing huge like those woman on miss Atlas, and looked over at Filo.

"What are you thinking about?"

"I wonder what's going on."

I ignored Raphtalia's hysterical question and moved the conversation forward.

"Maybe we should go back to the slave trader and see if he can tell us anything?"

"Good idea."

There was no getting around it. I really didn't want to leave and go all the way back to Castle Town, but that seemed to be our only option.

"Gah!"

We boarded the carriage and made way for Castle Town, but I worried about Raphtalia the whole time. I didn't want her getting sick again. On the way we fought a few monsters, and stopped to feed Filo when she protested of hunger. When we finally made it to Castle Town it was just past noon.

"Hey…"

I realized that Filo had changed even more. Her legs were shrinking, until she looked like some giant penguin, or owl.

Still, she happily pulled the carriage, as if it were her favorite thing in the world.

But she wasn't able to pull it in the same way she had before. Before, the carriage had been tied to the reigns around Filo's body. But now Filo held the straps in little wings that she could articulate like hands. She pulled the cart with skill.

"Gweh!"

Even her voice was different. Filo was white all over now.

"Huh?"

I climbed down from the carriage and slowly looked Filo over.

Has she… shrunk?

She seemed to be standing at two meters and thirty centimeters now. But her whole body seemed stockier now, like she'd made up for her lost height by expanding horizontally. She made for an imposing presence. She was like… one of those comically fat mascots you see around theme parks.

"Gweh?"

"It's nothing."

Was Filo aware of the changes she was going through? It was already hard to tell what kind of monster she was supposed to be.

"Yes, well… I don't know what to tell you. All I can do is express my own shock. Yes sir."

The slave trader was mopping the cold sweat from his face as he looked Filo over.

"Gweh?"

Filo was fatter in all directions now. It stood somehow like a mix between a human and an ostrich.

"Ok, so tell me the truth. This thing hatched from the egg we bought from you. What kind of egg was that?"

I stepped closer and leaned in as I asked. I snapped my fingers and Filo readied herself to attack if necessary.

"Gweeeeeeh!"

The slave trader, visibly flustered, flipped through sheet after sheet of documents.

"This is… strange. According to my records, the egg that I sold you was most definitely a Filolial egg."

"THIS is a Filolial?"

"Gweeh!"

I threw a big piece of food over to her, and she skillfully snapped it out of the air.

"Well… now…"

That reminded me… I don't think I'd heard any of those weird sounds from Filo for a little while now.

Did that mean that she had finally fully matured?

"And to think that this creature hatched only a few days ago? She's grown so fast! I take my hat off to you, Hero."

"Stop beating around the bush. Tell me the truth. What kind of egg did you sell me?"

"Well… Was this creature always the way she appears now?"

"No."

I gave him a quick summary of the maturation process we'd observed for the last few days.

"So you mean that the creature seemed to be a normal Filolial for a long time?"

"Yes, only now it's like she's become something completely different."

"Gweh?"

Filo turned her head to the side and struck a pose. It was cute, but I think she might have been a little irritated.

Just whose fault was it that we were here though? Hm?

"Gweh."

She walked over and rubbed her whole body against mine. Then she opened her wings and hugged me close. It only made sense, since she was a bird, that she'd be warm. But her high body heat was honestly almost sweltering.

"Um…"

Raphtalia knit her eyebrows before leaning in and grabbing my hand.

"Gweh?"

Raphtalia and Filo were now staring at one another.

"Hey, what's with you two?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Gweh Gweh."

Both of them shook their heads to the side. What was going on?

"So what is it?"

"Yes, well…"

The slave trader seemed at a loss for words.

Could it be that he didn't understand how to raise the very monsters that he was selling?

"I need to do some research. May I ask you to leave the monster with me?"

"If you hurt her during this 'research' of yours, I'll see to it that you pay."

"Gweh?!"

"If a single feather is missing… well I known someone called the premier torturer… I did learn a fair few things from that person" Shirou said.

Let it be known that Wu-chan was a good teacher on torture.

"I-I understand, but I will need some time. Yes sir."

"Fine. I'll leave it up to you. If anything happens, I'll hold you liable."

"Gweeeh?!"

As if she was dissatisfied with my answer, Filo flapped her wings angrily.

But a servant appeared, clipped a collar around her neck, and led her to a cage. Oddly enough, she didn't put up a fight at all. Maybe, she didn't because she could see us there with her.

"All right, we'll be back tomorrow to pick her up. I sure hope you have an answer for us by then."

I made my point bluntly, and then Raphtalia and I exited the tent.

"Gweeeh!"

Even after we'd left the tent and were walking down the street, we could still hear Filo's sharp cries.

That evening, we were settling into our room in the inn when the innkeeper called for us.

"Excuse me, Hero?"

"Hm? What is it?"

"There is someone here to see you."

Who could it be? I didn't have time to ask, as the innkeeper told me the person was waiting for us at the counter. I looked around him to see, and sure enough, there was a man I'd never seen waiting there.

"What do you want?"

"I am, um… I am a monster trainer…"

A monster trainer? Ah, a slave trader. Of course he wouldn't want to introduce himself that way here, in front of everyone.

"What is it?"

"Um… We would like to return the monster you have left with us, so I've come to meet you."

"What?!"

It had only been a couple of hours since we'd left the tent. What could have happened?

Raphtalia and I made our way to the tent as quickly as we could, and as soon as we were within earshot, we could here Filo's cries.

"Oh, hello there. You'll have to pardon me for calling at such an hour as this. Yes sir."

The slave trader came to meet us at the door. He looked exhausted.

"What is it? I thought we agreed that you'd take her for the night?"

"That was what I'd intended. But your monster has caused us a fair bit of trouble you see…"

"Gweeeeeeeh!"

Filo was rocking the cage, but once she caught sight of us she calmed down a bit.

"Your monster has broken three cages, and sent five of my servants to the hospital with heavy injuries. Three of our other monsters have also sustained heavy injuries. Yes sir."

"I'm not going to pay you for your troubles."

"Always thinking of money, even at a time like this. I take my hat off to you, Hero. Yes sir."

"Anyway, what is it? Did you figure out the problem?"

"No… However, I have heard an eyewitness report of something called the Filolial Master."

"Master?"

"Specifically it refers to a Filolial that has taken on leader status of a large Filolial flock. It's a rather famous story among adventurers."

Apparently the slave trader had thrown his net pretty wide when he tried to figure out what the issue with Filo was.

Wild Filolials formed large flocks and apparently they were controlled by a leader.

This master would only appear before human eyes very rarely. Was he suggesting that this "King of the Filolials" was Filo?

"Huh…"

Guess it was some kind of folklore.

I could have let the monster out and absorbed it into my shield. Then I would know for sure, but it would also kill Filo. I could butcher it and absorb the blood and wings and stuff, but since she was my monster, that would only unlock the Monster User Shield. There was something else I could unlock, but I wasn't a high enough level, and my skill tree hadn't progressed enough.

"Gweh?"

If the monster was on your side, its information wasn't displayed on the status screen, except for deeming it an ally. Now if the monster was an enemy I could have seen its name.

"So what do you call this master thing?"

"Filolial King, or Filolial Queen."

"Filo's a girl, so she must be a queen."

"Yes. And she's taken a liking to you, and besides, I couldn't sell her like this if I tried."

"Sir…"

"Huh? Did you hear that?"

"Hear what? I didn't hear anything."

"Um… I…"

Raphtalia covered her mouth and was pointing at Filo's cage. The slave trader's assistant was also pointing breathlessly. The slave trader and I followed their gaze to try and see what everyone was so excited about.

"M…Master!"

There was a naked girl with wings there in the cage, bathed in the afterglow of a radiant white light.

Shirou's face changed as soon as he saw her…

"I-Illya?" He said.

**P.O.V Shirou**

No… she looked quite similar to my older sister, but her eyes and hair color did not match, but her personality was quite similar.

He walked up to her, he took off his red cloak and wrapped her in it.

"Naofumi-san, we would get a REALLY bad reputation if we leave this be as it is" I said with a worried smile.

Raphtalia and Naofumi nodded furiously on unison.

There was one other person who could help us.

"Hey! Open up in there!"

Naofumi was banging on the door to the weapon shop, which had already closed for the day. Eventually the owner slowly opened the door, looking groggy and upset.

"What is it there Little-Hero? I've been closed for hours."

"We don't have time for that!"

Shirou had covered Filo with his cloak, and Naofumi pushed her forward so the owner could see her.

"Little-Hero-Boy, don't come bragging to me about your new slaves." Erhard said with a straight face.

"That's not it at all!"

What kind of person did he think he was? If I met the guy he seemed to think I was, I'd punch him in the face.

"Master? What's wrong?"

"You shut up."

"I don't wanna!"

What the hell was going on?

Everything went crazy after that. The slave trader kept thrusting his finger at me. His assistant was speechless. Raphtalia too. As for Filo, she wanted to get closer to Naofumi, so she became a girl, and before he knew it we'd taken her with us and was banging on the door of the weapon shop.

Tear! Riiiiiip!

just before it truly broke, Shirou managed to pry his cloak off her.

She transformed before our eyes.

She'd turned into the Filolial Queen (tentative name).

That damn bird! You know that isn't free?

"Wh…"

The owner was at a loss for words. He looked up at the giant bird. Filo suddenly turned back into a little girl and held my hand. Shirou covered her once more, this time he traced anither ine sothere would be no great loss other than od, the magic power he uses.

"See what I mean?"

"Oh… Yeah."

The guy twisted his face in confusion and led us inside.

"So why did you come here? You want equipment for her?"

"Are there any clothes that could survive this transformation? Or hey—why is she transforming in the first place?!"

"C'mon, kid. Settle down."

**P.O.V Naofumi**

That's right. Why was this happening? Why was Filo suddenly a little girl?

There were small wings on her back, left over from the transformation probably, and she had blue eyes. She looked like a little angel. And her face was so little and cute—she looked like a drawing. She looked to be around ten-years-old. She was a bit smaller than Raphtalia had been when we'd first teamed up.

GRUMBLE… a classic sound of hunger came rumbling from Filo's new human stomach.

"Master! I'm hungry!"

"You'll have to wait."

"I don't wanna!"

"All right then, you can have some of my dinner."

The shop owner went to a back room and came back with a pot of soup.

"Now you'll have to…"

"Yay! Yummy!"

She snatched the pot from him and poured the contents down her throat in one quick movement.

"Hm… Well, it wasn't the most delicious soup ever…"

She handed the pot back to him, and he accepted it in silence and then shot me a glance.

"Sorry about that."

"Hey kid, you better buy me some dinner some day."

She was already costing me a fortune!

"Don't worry,I will make you some right now, your kitchen is this way right?" I said.

"Uh… yeah… ok" Erhard said with a bit of worry.

it seems he hasn't tasted my cooking, he was in for a surprise, even servants that were gods praised my food.

"But now that you mention it, I do think I had some clothes for demi-humans that were capable of transforming. Which reminds me, go to a normal clothes store if you want clothes."

"You want me to barge into a store I don't know with a naked girl at this time of night? One that turns into a monster?" Naofumi said with a flat stare.

"You got a point there. Anyway, hold on."

He went into the back of the shop and I could hear him shuffling various boxes around.

"I don't know if these will fit, and they are seasonal clothes anyway—so don't get your hope up."

"Fine."

It took him quite a while of hunting back there before he eventually returned.

"Sorry, but I don't think I have anything big enough to survive the transformation.

"What?!"

But that was my only idea… No I… What should I do? There was this little naked girl hanging off of my arm, and I couldn't find any clothes to put on her. I was finally starting to repair my horrible reputation, and now this! This wouldn't help one bit.

"Master!"

"Don't you dare transform!"

Even if I could set certain rules for the monsters I controlled, there was no setting to prevent the monster from turning into a human. Monsters turning into humans! It must have been rare.

"But I wanna…!"

What would satisfy this girl?!

She refused pretty much everything I said. Was she in a rebellious phase? She'd only been born a few days earlier, so that didn't seem very likely.

"Because if I stay the way I normally am you won't sleep with me, will you, Master?"

She squeezed my hand hard and smiled, looking up at me with beaming eyes.

"What? I have to sleep with you now?"

"I'm lonely…"

"Oh boy… You're in for it now, Hero-Boy."

I wasn't summoned to this world so that I could babysit. Even still, I guess I had decided to watch out for Raphtalia.

"That reminds me. Where's Raphtalia?"

"I finally caught up."

The door swung open and Raphtalia came in, nearly out of breath.

"You ran off so quickly… I've been looking for you."

"Sorry about that."

"Yay! Raphtalia!"

Filo waved excitedly to Raphtalia.

"I'm not giving Master back!"

"What is this kid saying?"

"You won't give me back? You know I'm not yours!"

"Because Master is my papa!"

"No I'm not. I'm your… owner."

"You're not. Then what about Raphtalia?"

"Raphtalia is like my daughter."

"That's not true!"

"Huh? I don't follow…"

"Anyway, I don't have the clothes you wanted. I'll look around for you, but you should go home for now.

"Right… Sorry."

"Thanks for the soup!"

"I swear, kid… You're always showing up and surprising me."

Just then Shirou came back, he has a sandwich along with what seemed French fries.

"This is a club sandwich, enjoy" Shirou said.

Erhard took a experimental bite.

"T-This… this is!"

Forget the soup! this was dozen times better! and with ingredients of my kitchen!?

"Well seems like you don't have to pay for his dinner uh?"Shirou said with a smile.

We left the shop and made our way back to the inn, but once we were on our way Raphtalia stopped.

"Um… the slave… I mean monster trainer was looking for you."

"Huh? Oh. Okay."

We changed course and returned to the tent, where the slave trader was waiting for us.

"Well that was certainly unexpected. Yes sir."

"Sure was."

He pointed over at Filo, who was wrapped in the cape.

"Filolial Queens are capable of very advanced feats of transformation. I think they do this so that they may hide out among the other Filolials without interference from humans."

I get it now. So these kings and queens were able to change how they looked to hide out among the other Filolials. Filo used that ability to turn into a human.

"I am very surprised and excited to have the opportunity to see and study one of these. They are very rare you know. Your ability with monster training must be very impressive. Yes sir"

"Huh?"

"That you could raise a Filolial so well, and so quickly, that it became a queen is very impressive. How were you able to do it?"

There we go. Now I knew what the slave trader wanted. If he could figure out how to produce more of these kings and queens, especially considering their rare transformation abilities, he'd be able to sell them for a massive profit.

"I think it has something to do with my Legendary Shield."

I really did think that Filo's amazing maturation had something to do with the maturation adjustment ability the shield had given me. Or at least I didn't have any other ideas.

"I was afraid you'd respond with some equivocation like that. How much money would it take to get you to tell me?"

"It's not like that!"

"Then I will provide you with another Filolial hatchling, and you can raise it…"

"No thanks!"

I would not be able to afford raising another one. And besides, I needed to think about getting Filo some clothes. The last thing I needed was another mouth to feed.

"I guess the only other thing that might have done it, you know… that thing…"

"What thing, exactly?!"

Ew, the slave trader was excited, and his eyes were shining. Gross.

It was just something I'd thought of, but Filo did eat the Chimera meat. That's not to say that it caused her to transform, but it was true.

"Well then, that's a shame."

The slave trader sighed and stepped back, as either from disappointment or simply because he didn't believe me.

"I can supply you with another Filolial at any time, so don't hesitate to stop by. Yes sir."

"I'd like to refuse…"

"If you raise it into something useful, I'll see to it that you are properly compensated."

"Ha! I'll think about it when I have a bit more time and money on my hands."

I was aware that I was becoming a bit of a miser, but this conversation only set my mind further. Now being frugal was a conviction.

"Speaking of which, what should we do?"

"About what?"

Filo stuck her head into the conversation and asked.

"About YOUR condition."

"I'm sleeping with Master!"

"I won't let you!"

"Aw, but I want to! Raphtalia wants to keep Master all to herself!"

"I do NOT!"

What were these girls fighting over?

"Ok, Filo. Let's sleep in the stable attached to the inn, okay?"

"No way!"

She snapped out a refusal, very bird-like.

"I'm sleeping with you, Master!"

It was just like a kid. Kids always wanted to sleep with their parents.

"Okay, okay."

"Naofumi-sama?!"

"If we keep saying no she's just going to whine the whole time. I guess we need to bend a little too."

"I suppose you are right."

Raphtalia whispered her agreement, very disappointed.

"She reminds me a lot of sister really, she had the same personality too, I kinda mistook Filo for her" Shirou said.

"Uh, really? any tips on how to deal with her?"

Shirou just put his hand on his shoulder and gave a sad smile as he shook his head.

Naofumi sighed miserably.

"But you can't walk around naked in front of people anymore."

"Okay!"

Did she really understand? Whatever. All I could do is pray that the owner of the weapon shop would think of something in time.

We went back to the inn, paid the innkeeper for an extra person, and went up to our room. Our typical evening activities, of studying and compounding, were no longer possible now that Filo was running around.

"Wow! The bed is so soft!"

Filo was jumping up and down on the bed. It took a while to calm her down, and by then we were all tired enough to fall asleep.

"Hey, Naofumi… is this gonna affect Fafnir?" Shirou asked.

"I… am not sure? I mean it's not my beast so…."

Before going to bed I checked our stats.

Naofumi: LV 35

Raphtalia: LV 38

Filo: LV 18

Shirou: #$€£¥₩

Fafnir: LV 16

As usual, Shirou was the only one whose level could not be displayed, was it due to his adventures he had before? Making it unable for this world to quantify his strength?

Still I was grateful to him, if it wasn't for him or Raphtalia…

**HA̶͜͠Ţ͘͝͠͠E̸̡ ͏̷̶̡̡́͢Ḩ̢͢͠͝͞A̸̢Ţ̧̧̀͢͟͞Ȩ̛ ̧҉H̸̵̨̨̢͘͝A͝҉͏͘͏͝͏T́̕͞͞E̴ ̷̷́͘̕͢҉HA͢͜T͞E̢͏̕**

**͞҉K̵̕͏̨̧͘I̵̵͟҉͟͞L̸҉L҉̕̕҉ ̴͠͏K̸̴͢͡͏I͢͠L̡̀̕͡͞Ļ̶̸̸̧̛͘ ̶̡̢͘͢͝KI̸̢L̀͝L̨͢**

**͘͜R̴̷̸̷̀Ę̀͝͞T̕R̡̛͜͝IB̢̀͟͜͞U̷̢̡̕͝͞T҉͜͝͝I̸̡̛̛͟͟͝Ò̵̵̢͟Ń͘͢͞ ҉̴͝͠͠Ǫ̀͘͜͏̡F͢ ̴̷̵̛̕͠B̵LO͡O̵̶̴̵̴̧͞D̨̧̡**

**͞҉̢̡́͘͡B̷̡̡́́͏L̨̡͟͜A̸̸̢̡̕͡N҉͏̸̛̛̀K̕ET̵͠ ͏̶̶̛́͞THI̶̡͟͝S̵҉҉̡̧͡ ̨͘͟͟W̶̵̧̨͘O̕͢R̷̨̕͝Ĺ҉D̷͘͜͞ ̴̷̛͟͠͡҉I̸̷̢̧͢҉N͠ ̶̶̵̛̀̀C҉̵̀͜͜҉U̧̡͘͜͜͢R̷̨̡̧͞S͡E͏̸͏́S̴͝ ͜O̶̢F̴̸̵́̀̀͜ W̸̨̨̛͜R͞҉̷̕A̵͘͢͝҉T̡̀̀́͠͝Ḩ̴̸͘!͟͏!̷̨̛!͘!̛͢͝͏͏͟**

Shirou had not said anything about the new shield I had accidentally unlocked, maybe he was waiting for me to say anything?

Still, it held such an ominous name.

_Curse series unlocked_

Cursed weaponry… from what I know from games is that they are quite powerful, but comes with a nasty drawback.

**T̷̨̡͘͟͢ḩ̸̛́͡҉̸̀͞ȩ̵̶̷̧̢̛̛̀͟͡ ̡̡̨̀̀̕͝͏̷́̕̕̕͜ş́̕t̴̶̛͡͝à̡̛́͜͜͟ŗ̸̛̕͟͝͝͡҉͏t҉̷̶̸̢́͜͢͝͠͡͞͝͝ì̵̡̀͞ǹ̶̷̸̴̵̛̛͞g̢̛͜ ͏̷́͠p̷̸̧̡̢̡͜͢͝͝҉ȩ̷̵̸̶̢̛͜͠͞͞͠ǹ̶̵̸̴̵̴̡̡̀́͘͢͡à̵̸̸̸̢̧̛͡͏̴̢̀l̸̷̛҉́͜͝t͜͠ỳ̸̷̷̢̨̡̨̛͟͟͝͝ ̵̴͡͡҉̵̧į҉̵̷̷̸̢̛̛̀̀͘͠s̸͘͝͏ ̵̶̸̶̸͟͞f́͢͞͏i҉̸̡̛̕͏̶͟҉҉̵͠͞v̷̕҉̧̀͞͝ȩ̵̸̸̶̵̷̸̡̨̢͟͡͡.̛͏̶̢́͜͏ ̵̕͜͜͠҉L̀i̷̧͢͠͡f̸̢̀́͡͠҉̀e̢̛̛͟͢͜͟͟͡͞͞͏̨͠ ̛̕͘͟͜p̸̷̷̡̡͢͝eń̵̨̧̢͢͞͝a̛҉̷̢͟͞҉̡͜͠l̷҉t͡҉ỳ̢̧̡̛́̕͡,̴̷̡̨̧̛̛́̀͜͢ ̷̵̷̶̧̢̢̛͘͢͢͝͡͞b̢́͘͢͞͠͏̸́̕͝͠o͘d̶̵̨̢̢̨́̕̕̕͝y̕͞҉̴̡̨͜͢͟ p̕҉̶̢̛̀͟͢͞è͘̕͢͡͞҉̵̵͞ņ̵̷̸̶̵̢͢͢͡͡à̶̵͡l̵̴̢̡̛̛̀͢͜͟͞͏t̛ý̧̀͟͟,̵́́́̀͟ ̴̵̵̧̡̡̡́͠͡f҉̧̀̕ŗ̶̸̢̛̛̀̀́̕͟͡͝͞ę̸̴̷̸̸̨͢͜͜͢͡ę̵̸̀͟͟҉̸̵̀̀͡͞ḑ̶̸̵̸̷̛́͘͜͢͠͝o̸̶̶҉̵̵͠m̛͜ ̡̨p̸̶̸̡̛̛͜͜͞e̴͡n҉҉̸̴̡́̀͠a̸͢l̛̀͏̷̶̡̧̨͠t͞͏̸̢̨̕͜͡҉̡̕͟y͠͏,̴̴̴̧̡̧̛̛͡ ̸̴̶̨̨̨͞͝͡f̷̢̧́̀́͟͜͢͡͞͏á̸̸̸̡̢͘͟͢͡͝͠͡͡m̀e ̸̵̡̡̛̛̛͜͟͜p̸͢͜͡҉e̷̷̶̕͜͝ǹ̕͘͞҉̴̨̛́͜͢͞a̵̡͏̢̢̢̕͟҉̴́͜͜͠l̷̴̕͜͟͞͝t͘͜҉̸̸̛͘͞ỳ̵̵̸̸̧̨̕͢͜͜͡,̴̴̵̡̛͜͡ ̨̡͘͢͠f͏͟͝͞͞o̡̧͜͟҉҉̵͜ŗ̵̶̷̶̵͘̕͢͢͏̧t̵̸̢̡͜ù̸̸̸̧̢̨̕͜͞n̷̵̢͜͝͞͞͝e͢͏̸̴̢̢͟͢͢͜͢ ̸̡̡̨́͡͝p̕͞ę́͘͜n͜͡҉̸̸̨͢͏̷̧̛͟͝à̷̢̧̛́͘͜͡͠͝͡͞ļ̷̸́̀͢͟҉̸͘͜͏͘t̶̸̨͢͠y̢̡̢̛͜͟͞͝.̸̴̵̨̧̧̛̀̕͟͡҉ ̴̨̛҉̶̡̧͘͞G̷̶̴̢̛̀̕͟͠͏̵̧͜͟i̷̷̡̢̢̛͘͜͠͞v̨̧͘e ̴̢͏̵̵̨͢͡t̵̴̵̢̀̀̕͢͡͝͞h͏̵̧̡́͠é̛͘͜ ̶͟͢͡p̵̵̵̨̀́͟͟͡͞͏͏̨è̶̶̛̛͜͟͠n͝͏a҉̷̶̡̡́̕̕͟͢͠͞ļ͜͡͏̵҉t̵̡̢̧̛̛̕͘͘͜͝͝҉ỳ̸̧̨̛́́̕͘͜͢͝͠ ̛̀̀́͢͜͝t̶̨̀̕͟͢͜͡h҉̶̷̨́̀͘͜͝͞a̶̷̢̨̧̡̛̛̕͜͠t̵̸̡̛ ̢͠҉̵̢̧̢̛̀͜͜͠͠e̷̷̸̢̢͘͝͠x̶̸̷̧̢̀͘̕̕͟͟͞͞͠t͏̧͟͏҉̷̨̀͘͟ę̵̸̷̴̴̧̨͟͢͜͡ņ̸̸̛̛̀̀͜͜͝͞͡d̀͘͢͏̵̴̡̢̀͢͞s̕͠҉̵̕̕͘͜͜͟͡͝ ̴́̕ş̴̸̶̧̡̡̛̛́͜͞͞ǫ̶́͏҉̛͠ ̸̶̨̧̧́͘̕̕͢͝ḿ̸̡̧͘͏̧̨͘͏̷ư̸̸̸̢̡͢͞ç̵̶̧͢͠͏͟h̷̴̡̨͟͜҉̵̛͘͠ ̢̛̕͡p̷͝ư͜n̴i͏̴̷̨̡̨̛̀͜͜͠s̷̡҉̵̨̧̀̕͡h̸̨̛͟m̶̢͜͟͠͠͏̶͢͏͞e̵̵̡͘͢͝͠͝͝͡͠ņ̀́͘̕͜t͏̸́́͟͠͠҉̵͝,͏̸̷̵̸̛͢͜҉͘͠ ̵͟͞͡҉́͘͜m̡͢͝͏u̷̸̷̡̢̕͢͜d҉̶̷̷̕,́ ͘͘͟͝d҉̴̷̷̡̡̕͜͟͜͢͠͝͝ą̴̴̴̸̧͟͜͜ŕ̷̸̨̢̕͢͟͟͠͡͝͝͡k̶̴̛͘͜͢͞͠ń̷̕̕͏̸̢͜͏è̷̵̸̢̡̨̕͘͡͡s͢s̷҉̵͟͡,̸̴̧̧̛͘̕͘͢͝͞͡ ̸̨̧̢̀́͜͢͢͝͡͠á̸̧͠͏̸́̕͟͜͜͝͡҉n̷͝͡d̸͟͝͏҉ ̵͝m͏͜a̷̴̴̧̛͠͝ĺ̷̸̸̀̀́̕̕͢͢͡͠͡i͘͢c҉̷̛͟͝͡҉̧҉e͏҉́.̴̶̴̨́͘͟͡҉̢́͟ ̴̕̕"̨̡͏͘͢͡͠E̡̡͞l̨̛͠͝͞į͢͏̷̡m̴̷̧̀͢͞in͢͜͝҉̶̨̨̀̀͘͟ą̸̨̡t̛͏̴̶i͠ò̵̢̡̀͘͢͟͜͝͞͝͠n̸̵̡̧̛͠ ̵̸o̧͘͢͟f̛́҉̕͢͞ ̸̴̸̸̶̨̧̢̧̀̕͟͠ḩ̵̷̸̢̢̨̛́́͟͝͏u͞҉́͞͡ḿ̷̷à̛͠҉̷̧̛̛͟͞͏͠n̡͟͜ ҉̡̨҉̨̧ri̴̸̸̛͜͢͞҉͘g̶̨h̵̵̶̢͘͢t̛́̕͢͜͞͡s̴̷̨̕͢͞͡͞҉̶̷͘͡ ̷́͘͜͏̷̀͘͝͏̵͜҉̡b̶̸̢̢̛̛̀͘͟͡͠ỳ̷̧̨̨̨́́͘̕ ͏̷̡̛́͘͟͟͢͟͜͞͞͞c̷̨͢͢͢͢͠ą̴́͘͘͞͏̷ś̶̶̡͢͜͜͡t͟͞ŗ̵̶̸̸̷̧̨̛͢͞͞͠ą̶̢̨̢̛̀́́̕͘͢͞t̨̧͘͞͝i̛͘͘͡͞҉̷̨́͘͢͞ơ̛̕͘̕n͟҉҉̵̨̀̀̕̕͟͢͞͠͞,̴̶̶̛̕͢͠͝ ̢̨̡̛̛̛́͘͢͠͝e̴͢͠͏̵҉̸̢́̕͘͜͠x̶͟͡͠i҉҉̛ļ̷̛̀̀ę̴̴̡̢̡̨̛͘͢͠͠,̷́́͞͏͜ ̵̸̨̛̀́́͘͟͡͠͡͠e̶̢͢͏x̷̸̸̧̧̡̀́́̀͢͟͝͡ęç̧̕͠ų̷̴̵͘͜͢͟͠t̴̵̶̸̨͏̸̨̛̕͢͢͠i҉̷͏҉̨̨́̕͘͢͝͞ǫ̸̶̶͢҉n̡͘͠҉͏҉̀͘"҉̴̶̧̢̕̕͝ ̷̸̶̢̨̢̛̛́́͜"̴̵̸̀̕͠͝͞͏̧T̡̡̛͘҉̶̛ó̵̴͢͝҉ŗ̛͢͜͡͏̸̡͘͝͠t̵̴̢̨́͘͜͟͡͞͠͝ur̡̡͢͝e͏̴̷̛̀̕͟͟͢͢ ̶́҉̵ą̢̨̛̀͞͝ń̴̸̢̨̛̀͝͞͞҉d̶͝͝͡͝͞ ̸̵̧̢̛̀͟͞ś̡a̴҉̕͟͞d͟͏͡͏̶̴í̧̡̡̨͜͡͞͠ş́͠͏̸̴̵̶̨̀̕͝͝͞m̷̡͘̕͜͠҉̷̀͟͡ ̵̶̢̢͠͏̶̢͘͟u͏͞p̧͜ơ͘̕͢͞ń̷̨̕͟͟͜͜͡͏̀͡ ̶t̸̢̡̛h̢͏̸̵̴̡̧̢̢̀̀͢͞͞e̶̢͜͏̵̴̡̀́̕̕͡͞͝ ̸̵̶̡͜͢͏b̵̷̛̀͘͝͠o͡͝͏͏̴͞dy̸̶̶̢̨̡̡͘͘͜͜͟͡͡ ̷̴̴̶̢̛̕͘͟͠͡͡͞t̸̴̸̨́̕͢͢͟͡͝͠h̶͞҉r̴̴̴̷̡̨̢͝͝҉̛ớ̷̴̵̢́͡͠҉ú̶́͏̢́͘̕͟͝͞͠g̸̷͏̵̨̡̡̧̛̀͞h̵̵̷̵̢̨̧̀͜͞͠͞҉͝ ̨̢̛̀͘͢͢͟͏̶́͢͞d́i̴̡̛̛͢͠͡͏̡̡͢͠ǵ̴̶҉̴̧ę̵̷̢̡̛́̀͝͠͞s̴̵̡̧̢̛͟͞t͘i̸̶o͢͡҉͢͏̵̶̡̧́̀͜͟͝n̵̷̶̵̸̢̕͜͠͞͝"̴̢̨̢͘͞ ҉̸̶̷̨̢̡̕̕͢͏̀"̛́͏҉̴̸̶̡̀́̕͠͞D͜͡҉̵̴̸̧̀́͜͜e̶̶͜͡͠҉̡͡͞҉͏n̶̷̸̡̕͢͏̶̀͜͢͡͝i͏̀͞͠҉a̷̵̶̧̛͞l͏͏͢ ̸̴̷̶̵̷̡̀̕̕͘̕͜͢b̵̢͘͘͘͢͟y ̵̧̡̛̀͟͡͝co҉̵̕ǹ̴̢́͜͡͞͏̧̧͘͢͟s̴̕͘͢͞҉̷ȩ̶̶̡̛́̕ń̡̕͟͟͡҉̨̀s̛̛͏̴̸̢̧́̀́u̴̶̵̴̷̧̨̨͢͢͟͝͡͡s̴̵̷͘͟͝͠ ̵̸̧͘̕͜͟͡͝ò̴̢͘͟͡f̧̀͘͘͢͞͡͞ ̨́͜͝ţ̴͡͞h͏҉̸̨e̶̵̢̢͘͢͟͠͝͞ ̵̵̛͘c̀҉̵̧͏̷̢̛͟͟͡o̴̡҉́͠҉̸́lò̴̶̢͘͘͢͜͟͝n̕͘͜͜y͢͞ ͜t̴̸̴̡̛͡҉̸̨͟҉͞͝͏h̶̕a͠t̸̶͞҉̵̧̧́́͘͢͞͡͝ ̷̸̢̕͜͝͏͟͠el̨̕͠i̛͘m̴͢͜͟i̴̷̡͟͞͡n̸̡̕͝a̴̶̡̡̨̛̛̛͘͠t̸̴̡̀̕͘̕͢͟͜͡͡͝ès̵͟͏̧̀҉̷̷͟͞҉̴̨͠ ̴̢á͜͠͝͏ĺ̀̕̕͜͝͠͞͠ĺ̷̨̨̛̛͟͜͞҉̛̀ ̴̨̨͡h̷̡̧̡͞͝҉̵̸̡̡̛o̕n̷͏̧͘͡o̶͠r̴̵̡̡̀̕͜͢͠͞"**

The rage… the anger,I wanted to destroy it all…

**S̢͡҉̵̴̡̡̨̛͘͘c̶̡o̸̸̶̧͘͝҉̴̴̸̡̛͢r̛n͏̶̵̛͜͠͡͠ ͞҉̴̶̢̧̨̀͘͟͞͡͝f̴̶̷̢̧͘͞r̷̵̴̨̨̀́̕͟͡͝o̡͢͏̵̸̨͘͜ḿ̶̧̨̡̛̕͜͠͏̴͘͟ ҉̨̛̛͞͝j̕͟͞͝ų̵̡͞҉͟d̸̶̴̢̧̡̛͘͟͟͞͝҉g̴̵̕͢͟͠͠m͏̶̨̨͜͠͠é̵̸̕͞͞҉̢n͘͏̸̨҉̢͞͏̵̛̀͟͞t̴͠ ̢҉͘à̸̶̵̧̢̕͘͢͟͟n̸̕d̛ ̢͞͠͏҉̨ś̡̡͢͜͝͏̸̸̸̀́è̀l̶̴̶̀͠͝f҉̴̡́͘͜͜í̵̶̡̢̢̡̨̨͘͘͘̕͝s̛͟͞͡͠h͝n̢͟͏̕e̶̡̛͘͝͏̀͘͟s͘҉̴̵̛́͠͏҉͜͜͝s͏ ͠t͡͏̸̧̀́̀͘̕͟͜͝h̀̕҉̷at̢͜ ̸̸̶̢̢҉́͜ţ̶̸̸̷̀̕͞͝a͢͏̵̛͘͢͢k̨̧̨̕͢͜͞͏͝͏̡͏e̵̵͝s̢̛̀̕̕͘͢͡ ͟͟҉a̸̴̶̶̡̨̨̨͜͝w̶̵̷͘͢ą̸̶̸̡̛͜͟͟͠y̶̶̢̡͟͟ ̶̶̷̧̨̨̧̕͜͜͟͠͞m̸̡̡̛͡͠e͏͏̨͜n̶̵̡̨̡̛͘͏̷͏̶̧̕͟'̵̶̡̡̨͝͠s̷̛͝ ̷̴̷̢̢͘͘͢͜͢͞͠f҉̵̛̛̛͘ó́͜҉̸̵̡̀͟͜ŕ̴̶̨̧̛͘͟͢͠͡t̷̨̧͝u͞҉̴̸̸̧̀́҉͘n̕͞͞҉͏̡è͜҉̴̛̛͟͠͞ş̴̴̵̛͜͟͞͏̷.͏̀͘͜҉̸̧̢̀̕͡" ̴̧̧̀̀́̀͜͡͏̧̛͠͞d̸̷̸̶̨̧̛̀͘̕͘eá̵̷̡͝͡t̶̢̀̀́ḩ̴̡̡͢͟ ̷̵̡̡͘͟p̢̧̨̧̛̛̀̕͟͠͡͝e̷͏̵̕͝͏̕͟ná̶̛҉̨̀l҉̶̡̢͘͢͢t̷̷́͝͞͠y ̵̸̀̀҉͢͟ṕ̶̡̢͢͢͝͏̢e͏̵̨͜͡n͏͞a̷͘͏҉l̸̸͏̴̵̴̢̛̛͘͢͜ ̷̸̡͏͜͏̵̡͜s̕҉̷̨̀̀͞͏̵͜ę̛ŕ҉҉̴̡̧́͜҉͢͡v͜͝i̧͏̕͢͢͟͏ţ̡̧̛̛͞͠ư̷̢̨͢͜͝͞d̢͜͟͞ȩ̛ ̵̵̛̛̀̕̕͝͞i̕m̷̶̨͜͡͞͠҉pŗ҉̡͟͢͠҉̸̢̛͟i̶̶̕͠͝͠͡͏̷̛̕͟ś̴̢͘o̧ǹ̸̷̛̕͢͜͢͜ḿ̵̵̶̡̧͘͜͟͡͞͠e̷̴̢͘͏̸̡̀͜ń̷͟ţ͘͢҉͏̀͏̛ ̵̸̢̧̛͘͢͜͟͠͝cus̷̛ţ̛͟͝҉̷ơ̶̴̴̧̨̡͢͜͏̨҉d̵̨̀̀́͘͟͞҉y̴̧̛͞ ̕҉̴̕҉҉́f̷͜͡҉̵̡̛̀̕͟͢i̧̨̨̛͝͏n̶̢̡͘͜͟͟͝e͞͏̷̢̧͞͡͏ p̕͡͏̢e̴̴̸͢͠͏̴̡͢͡n̶̢͝a̡͡l̛͢͡t̸̶̨̕͘͟͠͝͠ý͏̢́̀͡͡͞,́̀͠ ̶̷̸̴̴̧́̕̕͞͡͠͞c̴̴ŕ̢̧̢͟į͠͡҉̛͘͜͝m̶̶̸̶̢̕͢͜͢͝͠͡è̡̧̧ ̧͢͟͡͝f̨̡̨͟͡҉̷̛̛͘͢͡͏ŗ̵́ó͝͞͏̶̡̀͟͢͡͞m͏̶̸̴̸̴̸̢̕͘̕͢͠͝ ̸̧̛́́͞a ģ̷̨͢͠͝ŕ̀͟͏̴̨̛ų̷̢̛̀͜͡dǵ̴̸͘͡҉̴̷̴́͜ȩ,̶҉̸̶ ̶́̕͏̵̛̕҉͟͟͡͝c̵̴̢̀͘͏ri̷m̀́̕͢͟͜͢e͘͘͟͢͝͏̷͟͠͠ ̸̶̴̴̧̢̧̛́͘͟f҉̷̡̡̛̛́̕͞r͟o̴͘͢͏̸̧̧̨̡͟͠m͞ s͞͏̧͏̛͟͟͠é̴̴́͘͟͞͏l̵̛͘f̸̶̴̷̨̧́͘͜͠͠-̵͟͠í̸̷̷́̕͡ǹ̴̴̴̷̶̵̢̡̢́̕͘ţ̧͘͞͏̷̶́̀e̸̸̵̵̢̨͠͡͠҉͘͞r̶͠͝҉e͜st̶̷̢̀,̢́҉̨̨̕͞ ̴̷́͜͡͝͝͏̨͏͘҉u̷̵̡̕͜n̸̸̴̨̧̛͡͏̷͘҉̴̕ç͟҉̷̛̀͡͝͡͞͞ǫ̛͘̕͜͞҉̡̡́́͠ǹ̸̢̢s̛͘҉̶̷̀͜͡͝c̶̸io͠͝ư̵͞s҉ ̷̨͏̵̧̀͝͝c̶̸̢̡̨̧̛̀̕͢͟͢͝͞r̸͘̕̕͢͟͢i̧͘͏̶̡͞҉̛m̸̶̴̧̛̀͘̕͘͝͞e̸̴̛͝͏̸̴̧́̀͢͝,̴̛́͘͡҉̢̧͘̕҉̴̧ ̸̢҉̷̢́̕͘͜͠s̸͘͟͝͞el̡̧̧̧̕҉̸̷f̷͢͡͠-̷̡̛̀́͘͢͢͠͡͠c̕̕͘͘͟͞͝ó̸̢̨́͢͜͝ń̸̴̵̶̨̕͢͡͞s̶͢ć̴̢̛̛́̕͘͢͢͝͞͞io̸̢҉ư̸͜͢͞͏̵s̛̕͢͝͝͏̷̶̷̨̀́͢͞ ̵̵̧̛́͘͟͞͞͝͏́c̡̨͜͞͝͏̨̨̀͢͠r̶̶̨̕͜͏̴̴̸́͘͡í̵̷̷̧̛́͘͘͢͠͞m̡̢̧̛̀͜͞ę̴̶̸̧̀́̕͜͜͢͠͞,̷́͢͜҉̸̷ ̢͏̧̢͜҉̸c̵̨i̶͘v̴̵̴̷̢̡̢̛́̀͜i̶̡͜͡͡l҉̸͜҉̷̵̧̨̀̀͜͞͡͠ ̧҉̴̨̨͘͢҉̢́͏̛҉w͝a̢҉̶̡̢̢̧́͜͝r̵̨͡͏̶̵̶̴̛͘͘͢,̶̢͠ ́̕̕͢͜͢͞҉͢ì̷̢̡̛͢͠͠͠͝͝͏̛ņ̴̵̷́́͘͢͡d̴҉̢̧̕͢͏̛́u͘c̛e̷̵̵͢͡͞͏̛͟͠m҉́͝͞͏e̶̷̴̸̛͢͟ņ̶̀͜͢͜͝͞͡҉t̸͡҉̡͜͢͏́,̶̶̡̨́͝͡ ̴̵̨̀́͘̕͡҉҉̴͟͢f̀͟͝͞҉̷̢̀͟͝͝͏̀a͡l̕͞s̷̸̨̧̛͘͟͢͡͝͞ȩ́̕͜͢ ̵̷̷̢̛͘͟͝͏̴̡̀̕͞s̡̀͞ţ̶̶̸̡̛́̕͟͠͝͡͝a͝͏̸̧̛́͜͠͏̶̢͟͠͡t̡̨̧̨̛e̡҉̶̧́͢͡͝͡m̵̢̧͘͢͝͠en̶̶̡̕͠͠t̨̀̀͢͝͞͠,͘͘͏̶̵̧̧́͘͟͝ ̶̸̸̷̵̴̷̨̧̧̢͞͞t̷̴̴̶̵̴̨͜͝͝͡͝҉h̷̸̨̡͝͠͞͏̧ę͞͏̸̧̕̕͘͝͡f̸̴̢̢̀̕͟͡ţ̴̡̛̛́͘͟͢͢͢,̷̸̡̧́͜͢͢͜ ̵ŕ̸̕͜͢o̶͡͏́͘͡͝͡҉b̵̵̢̧̀͘͘̕͜͡͝͝͝b́͝͏̵͢é̷̡̡̨̢͘r̵̴̡̡̡̨̀̕͘͜͞͝y̸̛͘͢͜͟͠,҉ ̵̵̶̵̕k̵̷̴̷̨̨͟͜iḑ̴̢́́̕͘͢͠͞͝͏n̶͘͝͏̶̴̶̧̧̧̡͜͞͞á̸̛͘͡͠p̸̶͞͝҉̶̴̶̸́̕͞͠,̸̨̡̛̀͘̕͟͝͠ ̶̨̧̨̛̛̕̕͜͟͠҉s̛͘͏̀͢͞͏̀͠ú̡̢̢͜͝͏͜͏̢i͏̴̷̡̢͜͝͡҉̵̕҉̶̧c̡̢̧̧̀͠͠͏̕id̢͜͏҉҉̢͘͘͘e͢͜,̴̶̶̛ ̶̶̸̨̡̧́͞ŗ̷̧̡̧̛̛̀̀͘̕̕͟҉ape̵͞͏̨͡͞,̶̛̀̀͡͏̷̵͠ ̨͢ar̀͢͏̷͡s̡͟͠o̧͏ǹ̶̛̀͏҉̸̧̛͢,́͘̕͢͝͏̀͢͡͡ ̸́̕̕b̸̵̧͠͞҉̸͘͜͡o̶͜m̶̨̨̡͘͢͞͠͏́b̸͠҉̵í̸̧̢̕͘̕͟͢͝͠ņ̸̴́͞͠͝͠g̶͢͏̵̵̸̡̢͠͝,̸̢̨̡̀ ̷̧͠͏̛͟͢v̴̴̵̧̀́̀̕͟͝͡͏̨͟ì̵̸̴̸̢̕͘͜͟͡͞ǫ̢̛̀̀͘͟͟͝͏l͜͡҉̶̨̡̧̛͜a̵҉̢̨͠͏̕t͢͟i̸҉ó̷͟͟͡n̵̵,̷̕͝ ̀̀n̡͝҉̵̨́͝͞͞e̴̢͢͜g̷̡̀̀̀͘͘͟͜͝͞l̵̸̸̨̧͟͠i̶̸̡̨̢̕̕͝g͘͏͝e̡̢̨͢͏̨̨͡͠ń̷̸̢̡̛̛͟͟͠͞t̸̶̨̡͜͟͠ ̶͠h̨́͢͟͠͡͝͏̡̕o̵͘ḿ̶̕҉i҉̢̢̢̛͞c̶̶̴̛̛̛̛̕͞͞͞͠ì̵̵̕͜͝d̢͞҉̶̶̡͜͢͠ę̸͏҉̕͢͟͡͞,̴̨̢̀͘͢͡ m̨̨̛̛̛a͜͞҉̶̸̡͡͡s̷̸͡҉̢̕͢͜͜͏̕s̨̡͘͠͠͏̶̨̡͘͜͝͝ ̴̢̨̨̧v̴̷̀͠͏̛͏̶̢̧̛̀͠͝i̶o̴̧̡͢͠͡͏̸̢͠҉̨͘ļ̴̶̨͠͞͝҉̸̷̛̀́͟e̷̵̕҉̴̨̨̨̀́̕͢͟͏ń̵̢̨̀͜͞c̷̡̕͟͢͏̴e̶̸̷̢̨̡͝,̷̡̢̕͞ ̸̵̢̛̀͘͘͘͠͏̛͘͠d̷̨͞͞ea̶̧͞t͞͠h̸͟͟͞͠͠ a̸̢ţ̴̴̧̛̛͡͠͝҉̷̛͟͏ w̸ǫ̴̷̴̸͠r̶͏̸̷̀͡k̵͢͟͝͞,͞͏ ̵̀̀͜͟͞͠͠o̴̶̕͏̵v̴̸̨̧̛̛̀̀̕̕͞͠͠e͟҉ŕ̡͟c̵͜͝o̷͏̷̢̛̀͟͟͞n̴͢͡f͜͏̴̷̡̕҉̶̢̀͡҉͠i̸̶̕͝҉̷̵̡̢͠͏d̴̶̶̨͢͢͝e͟͏n͏́́͟͠ţ̵̶̵̡̢̡̢ ̴̧͘҉̴̢̛͞a͘͘̕c̶̢̡̀͝͞͝͏҉҉͜҉cį́̀͢͢͠d̷̢́̕͠҉̷̡̀̀͢͜͝è̴͘ńt̀͡,̸̡̀͜͞͞͞**

The words that flooded into my mind, the sheer darkness of it.

It was not my own.

A small part of it was… but it couldn't compare and was swallowed by the deepest and largest darkness.

Enhancing it.

But… thanks to the new shield I had acquired from him I was able to calm the fire in my mind, the voices where still there, but now I was able to deferienciate them from my own thoughts.

Also he had done something rather incredible, both myself and Raphtalia received a magical boost to our defense and attack, the way he did so was using the link I had purchased and asked Filo for some of her blood, which she donated gratefully, mixing both ink and blood and adding chalk as well as my and Raphtalia's blood he begun to scribble on our bodies, it was a magical alphabet of mythology of our world, Runes.

Raphtalia felt a bit awkward, as I also looked the other way as he had to do it front and back.

For some reason she looked disappointed when she noticed that I was not looking.

"Thankfully I received some tutelage from a master of this"Shirou said with a grin.

The runes enhanced not only our defense and attack, but also our speed and resistance to compulsion magic.

Our levels where quite good if what we could tell, we had a leg up on the other 3, while our armor was inferior our own weapons and more importantly our skills, where heads over shoulder greater than theirs.

The next wave was coming and with the addition of the knight dragon, we now had quite a diverse party.

Shirou had stated that in the next wave he would leave to look for stronger monsters elsewhere as with the 4 of us would be alright, and by going elsewhere he would be able to minimise casualties much better as well as reduce collateral damage and save people.

I told him that if that was the best idea, that he should do it, Raphtalia also nodded as well and Filo, well she was playing around with Fafnir in her human form.

Shirou went up to Fafnir and patted him "Listen, take care of these 3 alright? when the wave strikes make sure to help them, if it becomes too much for you all track me down as fast as you can and lead me back, can you do that?"

Fafnir's eyes changed into one of seriousness and of resolution.

He would not fail his lord.

Shirou nodded.

Chapter End.


	7. Chapter 7

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Author notes : Chapter 6 got revamped sorry, I uploaded an unfinished version.

Chapter 7: Prepare for voyage

We woke up early, it was due to the weather being so hot today.

Why is it so hot?!

"Ugh…"

Naofumi body's wouldn't move the way he wanted it to. What was going on?

He slowly opened his eyes to find himself surround by white. he was covered in feathers.

Snore… Snore…

The whole bed was snoring!

He finally raised his face from the feathers to find that he wasn't sleeping on the bed anymore but on Filo's massive stomach, as she had returned to her Filolial form in the night.

Apparently she had rolled from the bed and hugged me against her, using me as a pillow as she slept.

"Get up! You fat chicken!"

Who gave her permission to turn back into a bird?

Yawwwwn.

Oh? So she could talk, even though she was a bird now?

Shirou looked at her and smirked.

"_This is how Sitonai would look if she were a Filolial I guess_" he thought to himself.

Raphtalia woke up and was looking at the scene "What… what are you doing?"

"This stupid bird got me up there and is still asleep! I can't get out, help me… and Shirou… stop laughing man, that's not cool!" Naofumi said as he hit Filo, but his attack was too low to do any significant damage to her.

After they managed to pry Naofumi away from Filo, the bird woke up.

"What happened?"

"First things first, turn back into a human!" Naofumi said commandingly.

"Huh? But I just woke uuuuup…"

**P.O.V Naofumi **

Dammit! I didn't want to do it this way, but I didn't have any other choice.

I opened up my status screen, looked at Filo's settings, and checked the box that demanded she do as I say. Now she had no choice but to do as I say.

"Turn back into a human!"

I turned to Filo and shouted the order.

"But I… I want to sleep with Master a little bit more!"

But the mark of the monster trainer curse appeared on her chest and started to glow.

"Huh?"

"If you don't listen, it will hurt you."

The glowing curse seal grew to cover her whole chest then continued to expand.

Yaaaawn!

Glowing geometric patterns appeared on her wings, and began to fly towards the glowing pattern on her chest.

They collided, and with a small fizzle, the monster trainer seal faded away.

"Huh?"

I quickly reopened the status screen only to find that the boxes I'd previously checked had all been unchecked. I tried to check them again, but no matter how many times I attempted it, the boxes remained empty. What's the use of a monster that doesn't follow orders?

Dammit! The whole reason I bought a monster in the first place was so it would do what I said!

That damn slave trader. Just you wait. I'm coming to see you… You better be waiting!

**Slave trader tent**

"Slave Trader!"

First thing in the morning, we set out for the slave trader's tent.

"What is wrong, Hero? This early in the morning? Yes sir."

"The monster seal you put on my Filolial didn't work. It was junk. Depending how you respond to my complaints, my monster and slave might make a real mess of your place here. Right?"

"I'm hungry, so I'll be back later."

"If you don't behave yourself, we'll make breakfast out of YOU."

"The seal we'd put on Filo wasn't working, and I couldn't even take it off."

"You don't say? Tell me more about it."

I explained the morning's events to the slave trader. It was pretty hard going from that point on. Eventually I calmed Filo down and convinced her to return to human form, and then we all made our way to the tent. Raphtalia was clearly on edge, worrying the whole time about keeping Filo from doing anything crazy.

"It seems that a normal monster seal is not strong enough to control a Filolial Queen. Yes sir."

"What does that mean?"

"Very powerful monsters cannot always be restrained by a normal monster seal. The Knight Dragons, for example, require a special seal."

While Shirou could not use the magic system of this world,he was able to access the status system. Fafnir was registered to him as he was released and ownership got transferred to him.

"So a normal seal isn't enough to control Filo?"

"That right."

The slave trader opened a notebook and began frantically scribbling in it, like he couldn't stand to let these new developments go unrecorded.

"So are you going to put on a special seal for me or what?"

"Unfortunately we don't offer that service for free here."

"What?"

"Well it does cost a fair amount of money to perform, therefore we are unable to offer it without compensation. There is only so much we can do. Yes sir."

So I guess he wouldn't do it for free.

"How much?"

"With how much I believe I can expect from you in the future, Hero, I'll give you a deal at only 200 pieces of silver."

Ugh… That was expensive.

"Isn't there anything…"

"Before you continue, I'll have you know that the typical market price is 800 pieces of silver. I have great respect for you, Hero, and therefore would never lie to you."

Ugh! That hit where it hurt. And honestly we aren't quite hurting on the monetary department at the moment.

I recovered from the shock and, mind still reeling, and with extreme trepidation, handed the slave trader 200 pieces of silver.

"If you're lying, I'll let my friends here rip you apart."

Shirou rolled his eyes.

"Naturally. Yes sir."

All of a sudden I noticed that Filo had returned to her Filolial Queen form. Raphtalia was holding onto one of the wings, as if it was her hand, and led Filo into the room.

"Just stay still for a minute, okay, Filo?"

Raphtalia said.

"Why?"

"If you stay still, I'll give you a present later."

"Really?" she said with a childlike manner

"Really."

Filo looked thrilled, and she went to where the slave trader was pointing and stood there silently.

Good, if there was any time for magic, this was it. I caught the slave trader's eye and signaled that he should start, and he quickly nodded. Suddenly twelve robed men appeared and formed a circle around Filo. They then emptied a jug of some type of medicine over the floor, and then turned to Filo and began chanting. The floor began to glow, and a magical square appeared.

"Wh…What?!"

Filo snapped her beak rapidly in protest, but she was unable to fight it off, and the square expanded to cover her.

"Ow! Ouch! Stop it!"

The monster control spell was hurting her, apparently, and she ran in distressed circles, snapping her beak here and there. The magic square began to shake.

The robed men all let out a gasp of astonishment.

"We've taken all precautions, using as many people as we have. I've never seen a monster be able to move under so much force. Who knows what she is capable of. Yes sir."

That reminds me, she was only at level 19. Just imagine how powerful she would be at 70 or something like that.

The slave trader's words carried great weight.

Finally the spell subsided, the monster control spell was etched into her chest, and she quieted down.

"It is finished. Yes sir."

I could see a monster icon flashing in my periphery, but it looked different than it had before, as if to imply a greater level of control. I didn't even stop to think, but quickly checked the box that detailed necessary conformity to my orders.

Huff… Huff…

Filo was nearly out of breath when she walked over to me.

"Master! That really hurt!"

I felt a little guilty about testing it so quickly, but I immediately gave her an order.

"Turn into a human."

"But it hurt so I don't wanna! Give me something yummy!"

She had immediately refused my order and demanded food, and so the curse on her chest began to shine.

"What? No! I don't like this! Make it stop!"

Filo released some type of magic that moved towards the curse, but this time it was unable to break it, and the curse itself began to react.

"Ouch! Ouch!"

Filo fell to the floor in pain.

"If you don't do as I say, it will only hurt worse."

"Ouch! Owwwww!"

She complained the whole time, but finally turned into a human. Once she did, the curse stopped glowing and disappeared.

"Heh! At least it worked this time. Nice job, Slave Trader."

"Yes, well, it is very powerful magic. It's not so easy to break, you see. Yes sir."

I went to stand before Filo, who was lying on the ground.

"It cost me 100 pieces of silver to buy you, and now it's cost me 200 pieces of silver to control you. That makes for 300 pieces of silver. I'm sure you'll pay me back."

"But… Master!"

She was reaching out her hand for me. It felt bad, talking to a little kid like this. Even still, I couldn't keep going on if my party wouldn't listen to what I told them to do.

"Do what I say."

"No!"

"Fine then. You don't want to listen to me? I'll just give you to that creepy old man over there. You want that?"

"…?!"

Filo finally seemed to understand her place, and stopped protesting. Her face twisted up with emotion.

The slave trader was looking me over. He looked somewhat distressed, but also very happy.

"How much would you buy her for?"

"Good question. She's very rare, but considering how much trouble she seems to be, I think that 30 gold pieces seems fair. Now that she has the stronger curse on her, she should be much easier to control, and there is certainly no shortage of work that I could have her do. Yes sir."

That slave-trading bastard. After all he said about not wanting her, and not being able to sell her—and here he was, already had a price in mind! I didn't know what he was really up to, but I got the impression that if gave him Filo, that would be the end of her, then and there.

"Oh? for you having said you couldn't be able to sell her, you sure had a price already thought of quite fast" Shirou said.

The slave trader smiled and shrugged.

And Filo, she was looking up at me, abject terror in her eyes.

This wasn't good. I'd thought that all the goodness in my heart was gone, and yet here it was, threatening to resurrect.

Whether it actually came back or not would depend on Filo's behavior.

I wasn't her lovable older brother—and I wasn't the type to sit around doting on a pet.

"There you have it. If you throw another fit, I'm not going to come running, you hear? I'll give you a bitter, gross medicine that'll run through all your veins and kill you."

"No! Noooooo!"

Filo was practically screaming.

"Master! Don't hate me! Don't hate me!"

She crawled over to me and held onto my legs as she shouted.

Ugh! This was miserable…

"If you listen to what I say, I won't hate you. You have to listen to me."

"O…okay!"

"Okay, good. So when we are sleeping in the inn, you can't turn back into a bird. You have to promise."

"Okay!"

She looked up at me, her face beaming. This was taking a real toll on my conscience.

But then I turned my eyes away from her pleading face, and the slave trader noticed and leaned in to watch, with excitement, how the scene developed.

"This play of heretical anger is astonishing, yes. I take my hat off to you again. You truly are the Legendary Shield Hero."

I didn't appreciate the aspects of my character he had chose to congratulate me on, but I suppose it was nothing to complain about.

"Naofumi-sama … don't you think that it's enough?"

"If I don't, she won't listen to what I say. You were the same way, remember?"

Raphtalia nodded.

"You're right. It was like that."

"There are times to let someone have their way, and times when you have to reel them in."

I didn't mention that I considered myself the judge of such matters.

"Ah yes, carrots and sticks! Carrots and sticks! Yes sir."

"I wasn't talking to you, Slave Trader."

And I wished he wasn't so presumptive.

"Sorry for all the trouble."

"If that's how you feel about it, then to make things easier in the future you should teach me how you raised this Fil…"

"Anyway, we have somewhere to be today, so we'll just be off."

"Ah, yes. I am once again impressed that you don't allow yourself to become subject to my own pace… Yes, your will is very impressive indeed, Hero. Yes sir."

So that was the end of our talks for the day, and we exited the tent.

"Naofumi-san, it's okay to be strict, but don't scare her like that, she was just born not even 2 days ago, temper yourself" Shirou said as he looked at me with stern eyes.

I… guess I may have overdone it.

But after what I went trough… can I be blamed for this?

No… I can, while it may explain WHY I do it, while may explain WHY I behave like this it certainly doesn't EXCUSE my doing it.

It wasn't fair when Shirou said stuff like that, but he was right.

Shirou had drapped her in his cloak and we went to the old-man's store.

"Ah yes, our Little-Hero!"

The owner threw his hand in the air at my approach, like he had been waiting for us to stop by.

"Did you find anything?" I asked somewhat hopefully.

"Yup. You just wait a minute."

He jogged to the door and put up a closed sign before motioning for us to come outside. He led us down the street to the magic shop we had visited a few days earlier.

"Now, now."

When the owner of the weapon shop poked his head in, the lady at the magic shop could not suppress a smile, and she ran to the door to meet him.

"Would you all come to the back of my shop for a moment?"

"Filo, don't turn into a bird without my permission, okay?"

"Okay…"

We went into the backroom, which smelled very much like someone had been living there. There was a large workspace laid out.

Apparently that was where she made her spells.

The ceiling must have been about three meters tall. There was a magic square on the ground, and some crystals placed delicately in the center of the room.

"Sorry about the clutter, I was just in the middle of some work."

"Its perfectly understandable… my own teacher of the craft was rather messy as well due to the many things she was working and researching" Shirou said with a forlorn smile.

"No problem at all. But do you sell clothes here for this girl?"

"I asked around this morning, and I heard that the lady at this magic shop knew what to do." Erhard said with a smirk.

"Oh yes, that I do." she said with a nod.

The lady took the crystals from their place on the table, and in their place sat a large machine that looked something like an antique sewing machine.

Was it a spindle, like the thing that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on?

"Is that little girl really a monster?"

"Yes. So when she transforms back into her original form, her clothes rip. Filo, turn back."

I figured it was safe for her to do it here.

"Okay."

She nodded, removed the cape, and transformed back into a Filolial.

"Ah yes, now I see. This is the little Filolial you had with you the last time we spoke, is it not?"

The magic shop lady looked up at Filo, as a Filolial queen, and asked in shocked tones.

"Does this work?"

Filo's voice was still the same as it was when she was a little girl, so it sounded very strange coming from her giant, Filolial body. Granted, I supposed it was an accepted fantasy trope that you could hold conversations with animals like this.

I looked over at Raphtalia.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

That reminded me, Raphtalia was a demi-human. Back when I was still bright-eyed and optimistic about this world, it would have been so exciting to have her as my partner. Thinking of it that way, I could understand the way that Motoyasu had responded to seeing her back when we dueled.

Of course, that was all in the past for me.

"So shall I make some clothes for her?"

"You can make them? Clothes that won't rip when she transforms?"

"Yes, I can… Though if we are honest, I don't know if they qualify as 'clothes.'"

"What do you mean?"

"How do I appear to you, Mr. Hero?"

"A magic shop… I don't know… a witch?"

"That's right. So I do know something about transformation."

It wasn't like I was starting to understand anything about this world, and I couldn't be sure if I was even right. But in the manga and games that I have played and read I think I'd come across witches that could turn into animals.

"Having said that, turning into an animal is really more trouble than it is worth, considering the level of magic required and the risk involved. Still, I do from time to time. Trying to find new clothes every time you change is really a bother, you know?"

Okay, so it sounded like witches and wizards were able to transform if they wanted to.

The witch was fingering some wooden sewing tools when she answered.

"It's fine if you are back at your own house or something. But to transform in a place you aren't secure, it can be a real disaster."

"I would think so."

The main issue seemed to be clothes. You couldn't just go walking around naked.

"So there are very useful clothes that people wear when they transform. Clothes that survive the transformation and will still be there, no matter the form you take."

"I see."

"There are some famous examples among wizards and witches, even among the demi-humans. An example you might know of is the capes that vampires wear."

Yeah… come to think of it, I'd seen that in an old movie. They could turn into bats and wolves and things like that. I guess they existed in this world too.

"This machine here is designed to produce the thread that we make those clothes from."

"You don't say… but how does it work? How does the clothing survive the transformation?" Shirou askes.

"The power that makes it look like clothing is very exact."

Her answer confused me.

"This machine turns magical power into thread. The user can decide on their own timing to turn the thread back into magic, and vice-versa. Basicaly it uses the magic of the wearer to create the clothes and once they turn back it turns into magical energy stored until it is needed again" Shirou explained as he analyzed the spindle.

"So you're saying that when she turns into a human, she can turn her magic power into clothing?"

"Yes, that's how it works." The witch replies with a smile..

She was right… It wasn't exactly clothing in the way I understood clothing. When Filo wasn't a human, it would turn into a magical power that dwelt within her body. Then when she turned into a girl, it would materialize as clothing.

"Okay then. Now, Filo, will you slowly turn that handle for me?"

Filo got a hold on the handle and began to turn it. When she did, a thin thread began to come out of one end the machine. The old lady took it, wrapped it on a dowel, and started spinning the dowel to collect the thread.

"What's happening? I feel like I'm losing my energy!"

"We are turning some of you magical powers into thread, dear. You'll feel a little tired. But keep on turning that handle. We don't have enough yet to make you any clothes."

"Ugh… But this isn't fun!"

I guess she really was just a kid. She'd only been alive for a week, come to think of it.

Filo kept slowly turning the handle and looking absentmindedly around the room.

When she was doing so, the jewel that was on top of the machine suddenly broke.

"Oh no. My jewel broke! Without that we won't be able to make the clothing."

"What?"

That sounded like a big problem to me.

It would be near impossible to get her to change into clothes whenever she transformed, and besides, the cost of the clothes would be astronomical.

"Isn't there anything you can do?"

"Well, the material for the jewel can be found in the market… but it isn't cheap."

"Ugh…"

That was the last thing I wanted to hear.

"Is there any way we could make it?"

"Hm… Let me think."

She found a map at the back of the bookshelf and unrolled it on the tabletop.

"I believe, in Melromarc, is only place where the jewels may be found. Here in this cave."

She pointed to the mountainous area in the southwest of the kingdom, and both the guy from the weapon shop and I nodded.

"There is supposed to be a rich vein running through the basement of some ruins here. If you could find it, we'd be able to make the jewel for not much money."

"Sounds like a plan."

It would be dangerous, but we didn't have enough money to think about any other options.

"All right, I'm going with you."

"Are you sure?"

"How else will you know what is good-enough quality?"

I did have a skill that improved my resource appraisal, but it would still be best to have an actual witch chose the jewel.

If we made a good haul, we could sell the remainders for profit. That was obviously a best-case scenario.

"Okay great. Are you ready to go now?"

"Yes, no problem at all."

"All right then, let's go. And quickly."

We loaded up the carriage with our luggage and had Filo pull it. Then we all set out for the cave in the Southwest of Melromarc.

**3 hours later**

"Is this the cave?"

I was pointing to what looked like the intimidating entrance to a ruined temple, tucked into the crags of the mountainous region we'd been traversing.

There was a temple built into the ruddy cliffs there… and it felt like it must have contained some powerful items within… that is, if this were an RPG. I caught myself thinking that way again. I've spent too much time with games!

"No, that's not it. According to local tradition, there was once an evil alchemist who made this temple into his home base."

"You don't say…"

"There are rumors that the alchemist was deeply involved in research on a dangerous plant. Apparently that plant is still sealed inside. We will not venture in there. There should be a tunnel bored into the side of the mountain that goes under the temple. That's what we are aiming for."

We all began to scour the area for the tunnel the witch had described.

"Is this it?"

We moved further down the path to find a giant, fresh crack in the cliff. It was large enough to squeeze inside.

"It could be."

"Naofumi-sama, should we go in first and check it out?"

I nodded, and we both looked inside.

The interior appeared to be man-made. It was formed from stone, but formed into concrete and designed shapes.

What's that? There was an ornate treasure chest sitting at the back of the room. I opened it, but it was empty.

I guess if dungeons were real, this is what they would be like. Of course someone would have been there before you.

Shirou looked around "I sense some strange foreign mana in the air" he warned.

We managed to find a room that held a warning about a seed that was inside.

however there was no seed to be found.

It was not our problem so we kept going on.

Shirou stopped us, he signaled with his head at the floor.

"Monster footprints… and fresh ones, prepare for comfrontation" he warned

I took a defensive stance while Raphtalia got into an offensive one, Shirou made the two swords he had used before appear in his hands.

It was a chimera… Shirou noticed it, but different from the ones he fought.

Filo however was drooling as she sniffed the footprints.

I felt something course trought my body… something foreign.

It tried to metaphorically latch on my mind but then I heard the sound of breaking glass.

"Uh… seems like my defenses for you all proved quite resilient" Shirou said.

It was a compulsion… something to make our fears manifest and break the harmony of the team. It seems Shirou's runes kept them at bay.

When I am able I am going to look for a shield to raise my magic resistance, those things are not a joke, if we'd fell victim to this… well I dare not think about it.

"It works like a curse would, it latches upon you and uses your own magical power to feed it, so… I simply flush them by using my own magical power so the curse can't take hold by circulating my magic power" he said.

The runes he drew on us did that for us automatically for us as we where not able to do so on our own just yet.

Shirou was amazing, and someone you could truly depend on to do the right thing.

Even the witch was taken back by how easy it was for him to break free from that, and was quite taken back by his own method to do so it was devilishly simple, so simple that no one would ever tought of doing so.

We where attacked by monsters,

We eventually came upon a monster that looked something like a bat, it was called a Voice Gengar, and it had been making those voices that acted as a medium for the curse. We fought it, and the witch supported us with magic, so it was an easy win.

Filo ran up a wall and flipped off it, swinging her leg into a powerful kick that brought the bat down. She could really fight. I let the shield absorb the Voice Gengar.

**Voice Gengar (bat form) Shield: conditions met**

**Voice Gengar (bat form) Shield: ability locked:**

**sound wave endurance (small)**

**Special Effect: Megaphone**

Special effect Megaphone? I guess I could tell what that was.

The shield itself wasn't all that great, though I suppose the monster also wasn't that strong, so I shouldn't have expected much.

And yet… why did it specify bat form?

It made me wary, and so I strained my ears against the silence of the tunnel. I could hear voices in the distance.

We had no choice but to keep going.

The tunnel had gotten very dark, so I was holding a torch in one hand. Then, suddenly, I couldn't see anything.

Another wave of magical energy passed and we heard the voices again… and just as suddenly they died. Man Runes are amazing!

I switched to the Voice Gengar (bat form) Shield, and used the special effect Megaphone.

"Hey!"

My voice boomed and echoed down the call, and I heard some strange rustling in response.

"You scared me!"

"Me too," chirped Filo.

"I am the source of all power, hear me and understand my reasons. Restore our vision."

"Fast Anti-Bind!"

In an instant, the dark hallway became suddenly bright enough to see.

I looked at my feet to see a great number of small, rat-like monsters scurrying around my feet.

Then I looked over at Raphtalia and the others, only to find them beaten up pretty badly.

They must have been attacked in the dark. Of course they'd be beat up.

I took some healing medicine from my bag and handed it to Raphtalia.

"Witch, do you know any sort of restorative, healing magic?"

"Unfortunately not. I'm not suited for restorative magic."

"Oh…"

This wasn't looking good. They had taken some real damage.

Oh hey, that reminds me. I absorbed the monster we'd just defeated, and I unlocked the Voice Gengar (rat form) Shield. Its special effect was the same as the last one, but its equip bonus was

"Blinding Endurance (small)."

Just to be safe, I switched to my Alert Shield. With it equipped, we would be alerted if a monster came within twenty meters of us. I'd wondered how useful a distance like that would be out on the fields, but I now realized that it was a pretty useful distance—if you were indoors, or in a dungeon.

We stumbled on through the tunnel for a while before eventually coming upon a vein of ore that glowed dimly in the shadowy hall.

"Kyukiiii!"

A strange voice suddenly filled the air. It was the monster that owned those footprints back at the entrance, and now it was there, guarding the vein of ore.

It was called a "Nue." It was so similar to the Chimera.

"Damn… I hate those" Shirou said "But their meat makes for good grilling"

Nues were like Chimeras in Japanese mythological settings, and they were a type of legendary mythical creature.

It was a monkey's head on a tanuki's body, with a tiger's legs and a snake for a tail.

Shirou charged in, both swords slashed at the Nue.

It screamed in pain.

Just like the monsters we fought the swords he had made more damage to monsters.

"Oh my, those weapons are quite exquisite, I am a witch so I don't use such weapons but from what I can gleam it enhances his magical defence and has anti-monsters properties"

Filo then joined Shirou and with one single kick from her, she completely destroyed the Nue's head.

"Uhmm… talk about a headshot" Shirou said.

He hasn't been take a single damage.

The witch stared at Shirou for a while.

"If I may ask… what magic is it that you use? I never seen it and those weapons, they seem to not exist yet they are here" she asked.

Shirou explained a bit about his projection magic..

"Amazing, a skill many deemed as useless could evolve to this degree, my boy you are quite valuable, if people learn what you could do… I fear for what may happen to you, still it seems as if you could take care of yourself quite good, and you have quite a good company as well" she said looking at us.

Fafnir was eating the remains of some of the monsters with quite a lot of gusto.

The reason Fafnir did not participate was for him to get used to the group's dynamics.

Next encounter would be his debut.

We had to move quickly to salvage the damn thing as Filo was begening to eat the dead Nue.

I unlocked a good variety of shield (not at the same level of svalin) and then we looked around and found the gem we where looking for,since we found quite a lot it was decided to give a share to the witch, as she had come with us.

"Okay, let's rest up for a minute and then get that ore."

There was a vein of glowing ore right there, and it would be easy enough to pry some out with a pickax.

"Good idea. Let's take as much as we can carry.

So we took a break and then set to work prying out ore. Once we had it we set off.

Oh, of course I also let the shield absorb a little ore too.

But I hadn't filled in the tree enough to unlock anything. And I didn't know what else I needed.

We made our way back to Castle Town, and on the advice of the witch decided to stop by the apothecary to get some treatment.

Luckily the apothecary knew a place that could treat us, and luckily enough it was cheap to get some restorative magic spells cast on us.

Apparently I could use restorative magic too, so I wanted to hurry up and learn some. That was the rest of our day.

The next day we processed the ore we'd gotten into a proper jewel, which the witch installed on the top of the magical spindle. Just like she'd done the day before, Filo slowly and begrudgingly turned the handle.

"It's boring…"

"Just do it. If you finish, then I promise to uphold my end of the bargain."

Honestly, yesterday had been exhausting, and I wanted to relax that day.

"You mean food? Is it gonna be yummy?" Filo asked.

"Yeah."

I kept my word. And I had promised to feed her something delicious, so I would.

"Okay then, I'll do my best!"

She went on turning the squeaky wheel.

"Oh good! She's doing such a good job!"

"old man. I made a promise to you too. Do you have any time after this?"

"I put up a sign saying I'd be closed until afternoon, so I have that much time. You gonna get me something good?"

"Something like that. You think you could get me a big sheet of iron?"

"Huh? What do you need something like that for?"

"To cook something."

"Little-Hero's gonna cook for us? I don't know if I should look forward to that or not,I tasted Shirou's cooking but I don't know how it would come out with you."

"Oh, come on."

He looked disappointed—which annoyed me. Show some gratitude.

"Okay, Raphtalia. Head to the market and get me charcoal, some veggies, and meat. We want enough for six people, but make sure you consider Filo's appetite."

"All right."

I gave her some silver, and she left.

"Yummy food, yummy fooooood!"

Filo was excited now and started turning the spindle wheel faster than before.

That went on for a little while, and then the witch finally asked her to stop.

"That should be enough for now. You can stop."

"If I keep turning it, will I get more yummy food?"

"No. Stop turning it."

"Okaaaaay."

Filo came over to my side, in her giant-bird form.

"Master… yummy food."

"Not yet, we don't have your clothes yet."

"But…"

Filo looked very disappointed. But Raphtalia wasn't even back yet, so I couldn't have fed her had I wanted to. I didn't have the things I needed. She was so innocent and free… really just like a kid.

"When we leave the magic shop, you need to transform into a human."

"Okay."

Did she really understand? I wasn't sure. Is this what it felt like to have kids? Nah…

"I just needed to weave this into cloth, then make the clothes."

The witch held out the thread for me to see.

"I know someone that can take care of turning this into cloth for us."

"He's got an idea, so we're heading out."

"All right then, what should I tell the young lady when she returns from shopping?"

"Just tell her to wait for us at the giant gate where you exit the town."

"Okay."

The weapon shop owner led the way out, and I followed him.

"I'll accept payment later on, from the weapon shop!"

"And how much will that be?"

I really wanted to know, that's why I asked.

"For the magic thread? Well the crystals cost quite a lot, but you helped me out, and provided me with the materials, and gave me some more so this time let's just call it fair at that."

"Thanks."

She probably knew that I couldn't afford it if she had she asked for 50 pieces silver or something.

So the weapon shop owner and I went to visit a friend of his who said he could turn the thread into cloth for us.

"This is a very rare material indeed. Yes, this might take some thought. But I can probably have it ready for you by this evening. You should take the day and visit a tailor to get measured. I'll bring you the cloth once I have it."

So we went to the tailor.

I couldn't believe how much time and energy we were spending on getting a set of clothes.

"Ooh! What a cute little girl."

The tailor shop was run by a young woman who was wrapped in a scarf and constantly fingered her glasses. She was leaning on the counter.

She seemed kind of plain. I don't know how to describe her. If this were my world, I'd say she looked like the kind of girl who wrote doujinshi or something—kind of quiet and geeky.

"She's got little wings too, just like an angel. I've heard there are winged demi-humans too, but they don't look so perfect."

"You think?"

I asked the weapon shop owner what he thought, but he just shrugged.

"Yeah, the winged demi-humans also have other bird-like parts, like their arms and legs. But this girl is just a normal human girl, expect for those little wings."

"Huh?"

Filo looked up, inquisitively, at the tailor.

"Oh, yeah, she's actually a monster. She's just transformed into a human right now. When she turns back into a monster, her clothes rip, you see?"

"Ahhh…. so you've come to get some magical clothing made, is that right?"

Her glasses flashed. I was sure of it now. Had this been my world, this girl would have been a total Otaku.

I knew someone like her back home, who sold her own doujinshi at conventions.

She'd lent me some of her participation passes from time to time, and that was how I got to go to some of these conventions and see what they were like. She had been a pretty nice girl.

"She is very pretty, so I think a simple one-piece would work well. If we just add some simple accents that can survive the transformation, that should be enough!"

She unraveled a spiral of measuring tape and set to measuring Filo, who stood there wrapped in my cape.

"I'd love to see her transform!"

"Huh?"

Filo shot me a searching glance. I couldn't think of a way out of it.

"I'm not sure that this room is large enough."

The ceiling only looked to be about two meters high, in which case Filo would slam her head against it in her Filolial form.

"Can I do it while I'm sitting?"

"I guess so."

She sat down and, her eyes on the ceiling, transformed into her original form. The tailor was impressed.

"She's so different! That's even better."

If this girl wasn't shocked by seeing Filo transform, then I felt like she knew what she was doing. We could trust her.

The tailor measured around Filo's neck and started jotting notes about the design.

"Okay, we're all set! I'll just wait for the fabric to show up!"

"This one knows what she's doing." Erhard said.

"Apparently."

She was the kind of person that couldn't stop once the flame was lit. She'd have to focus on the project until it was done.

"I think I can have it done by tomorrow."

"That's fast. But how much will it cost, all together? Give me the total please."

"Well, if you are supplying the materials, then… probably 40 pieces of silver."

"Filo, are you hearing this? That's 340 pieces of silver I've spent on you now. I'm sure you'll do all you can to help make that money back."

"Okay!" she said as she smiled happily.

Did she really get it?

Filo transformed back into a human, and we left the tailor.

We had finished all of our important errands, so we went to the large gate to meet up with Raphtalia.

"Naofumi-sama, I've bought all the things you requested."

"Filo cost me 340 pieces of silver so far. Raphtalia was way cheaper."

"I wish you wouldn't speak of me as 'cheap.'" she said with a flat stare.

Sigh… well, there was nothing left to do but to get down to it.

"Old man, go get me that sheet metal. Filo, you go with him and help carry the materials back here."

"Okay!"

"Sure."

Filo set off after the old guy, and they returned quickly, carrying all the luggage.

Why did she transform into a human to lug that luggage around?

Just as I'd hoped, there was a large metal sheet included in the luggage.

"All right! Let's get out of town and head to the riverside."

We walked through the fields until we came to the riverbank.

I set to work arranging stones to hold the sheet of metal. Then I built a fire underneath it.

"Raphtalia, Old man, you two watch the fire for me, okay?"

"Um… sure."

"Okay."

Whatever he said, the guy made weapons. He should know how to watch a fire.

"What about me?" asked Filo.

"You watch to make sure that we don't get attacked by balloons."

If I'd let Filo help with the fire or cooking, her curiosity would get the better of her, and I'd have a nightmare on my hands. It was much better to give her something else to do. Otherwise I fear she might set herself on fire.

I started chopping the veggies and meat that Raphtalia had purchased. Then I skewered them on metal prongs.

"Hero-Boy, the fire is looking pretty good."

"Great."

Like he said, the metal looked good and hot, so I threw a fatty piece of meat on it to get it good and oiled up. I threw meat and vegetables on the sheet. Then I stuck the skewers around the sheet where they were warmed directly by the flames.

"You're quite the cook!" Erhard said.

"It's nothing much, Shirou's cooking is much more diverse, however, even something like this I can do"

"Don't sell yourself short, this is very good, However next time cut the meat a bit thinner and marinate it to bring the umami flavor of the meat" Shirou said.

I nodded, that was a good tip.

It was decided that we all would train a bit after eating.

"It will help with digestion" Shirou said.

I sighed as Erhard decided to watch.

"All of you come with the intent to kill"

Raphtalia rushed in, creating illusions, However they were low level and thus he spotted the trick, the real one was the one that actually moved the grass.

With a lunge she attacked only for Shirou to dodge, grab her wrist and throw her into Filo's path.

Naofumi used the dog shield but it could not get him, as he simply knocked him out of balance by swiping at his legs.

However he managed to right himself and landed with the light metal shield to defend from a kick of his, the shield sounded like a gong and was thrown back a couple of feet.

Filo dashed in her bird form and attacked with a powerful kick.

Shirou saw it coming and threw myself back, However Raphtalia was on top of her and jumped to attack me by surprise.

He simply used more force and did a backwards roll as her sword bit into the ground.

She left he sword and tried to attack him barehanded.

He decided to use that move from his old civics teacher who turned out to be Caster's master.

Shirou threw a punch at her, she thought she dodged it, however his hand snaked about and hit her in the nape and then held her in a reverse choke hold.

Afterwards he let her go and with a reinforced hit send her flying away, Filo acted as an overgrown pillow, softening her fall.

The whole thing lasted an hour, a great improvement, but mostly due to Filo's attacks in her bird form.

Erhard was aghast "is this how YOU guys train? are you insane?! Shirou-boy… you almost got hit with lethal attack like… 50 times, and that's on the first 9 minutes… are you sure you are not one of the heroes?"

He looked away, he was somewhat of a hero… after all he did participate in the Grand Order… or well an alternate of himseld did at any rate and got imbuded with his memories.

With today's training the group managed to level up twice, Erhard gave some maintaince to Raphtalia's sword and we broke out some drinks.

That reminds me. I've been wondering about this Curse Series Shield.

When they were about to take Raphtalia from me, the shield was absorbing something and the Curse Series Shield was unlocked. I looked for it on my skill tree, but hadn't been able to find it.

I opened the help screen.

**C̀͢u̶̢͡ŗ͘͜͏s͞e̡ ͏̀͘Sé̛͟r͟i͏̸̡es̸͢͝:̡̀ ̵̧͟s̡̀h͞o̶̡̕͠u̷ļ͢͟d ̵͘͞͠not̡́ ͏̀b̴͠͝e͜ ̕͢t̵̢͜o͏̨͢u̶ç̧͜he̶d̵̷̛͘͟͢ **

That's all there was written at first. But after I looked around a few times, the words vibrated as if shocked, and changed.

**Cu҉̵҉r̛͢s̕͘͢e͡͏ ̢́͜Sé̕͠ŕies:͏̛ d̀͘el͢͠iv̸̛͘e͟͝r̶̕͡s e̛͘x͠t͘͟͝ŗ̷̴a̛o̴͘r͏d҉͢įn̶̶͘a̴ŕ̨y̵̡ ̷͞p̢o͘͡w͢͢͜er̵̶͢ ̶̨͝an͟͟d͟ g͏ri̶͞e̢̕f̵̨̛ ̕͢ţ͞͡ơ͘̕ ͏̷i̶t̢͢s̸͠ ̀̕҉h͞o͢ļd̡͘҉e҉r̨: s̨͝͞h̢oul͟͟͞d̵̢͝ ͠n̡͝o͢t ̀͢b̛͝e̛ t̀͝ou̶͡c̵̨͟h̶͞éd**

I was still unable to find the shield, so I decide to ignore it for the time being.

It must have been the type of weapon that only appeared as an option when you really needed it. It was some kind of conditional shield.

What could be ironically be considered a double edged sword.

**The next day**

The next morning we went to the tailor, and that Otaku girl was waiting for us at the door, a wide smile on her face.

"It took me all night, but I finished! I think you're going to like it."

She'd stayed up all night, but she was still chipper—practically bouncing off the walls. She ran back behind the counter and returned with Filo's new clothes in hand.

It was basically a white one-piece dress, but there was a large blue ribbon in the center. It was fringed here and there with blue ribbon for contrast. You could tell with one glance that it was well-made, and made full advantage of the materials.

It had a "simple is best" esthetic, the sort of clothing that chooses its wearer.

"Master! Am I supposed to wear this?"

"Yeah."

"Yay!"

She threw off the cape and stood there completely naked.

"Stop that."

"But…"

Raphtalia stopped her, and led her into the back of the shop.

"Okay, so try transforming into your monster form."

I could hear the tailor's voice echoing in the back room.

"Why?"

"If you don't the ribbon will dig into you."

"Oh no!"

That was an odd threat to make.

"Okay!"

I heard a loud thump as she transformed, and then…

"Yup… I knew it would look good."

She sounded rather self-satisfied.

"Okay, let's get going!"

"Yay!"

All the girls came out from the back room together, and I got my first look at Filo.

She was already a cute girl, so with the clothes she really did look like an angel.

She was in a white one-piece dress, with her white wings, and a large blue ribbon on her chest as an accent.

She was like a little 2D child angel heroine!

"Master!"

"Huh?"

"How do I look?"

"It suits you well."

This Otaku girl really knew what she was doing. Who else could have come up with a design that worked so well with Filo's appearance and specs.

"I see it also boosts her defense somewhat" Shirou said.

"Ah, yes, it is due to the abundant magic power that enhanced the clothes"

"That was a nice touch"

"Ehehe."

Filo looked a little embarrassed, but she played with the fringe on the skirt and spun in a little circle.

"_Definetely like Illya and Sitonai_"

We left the tailor shop, and decided to head back to Riyute. To do so, we had to get Filo to pull our carriage. When Filo transformed into a Filolial, the clothes would disappear, but the ribbon would remain as a collar around her neck.

The clothes were expensive, but there had clearly been a lot of thought put into them.

"Oh, Shield Hero!"

We were leaving Castle Town when we happened to come across the witch from the magic shop.

"Are you on your way to Riyute?"

"Yeah."

"I'm on my way there also. Could I trouble you for a ride?"

She was smiling.

We were going there anyway, and she had gone out of her way to help us, so it didn't seem right to turn her down.

"I can't guarantee a smooth ride, but you're welcome to come with us."

"I did ride in it two days ago."

"Oh yeah, that's right."

Raphtalia had learned to fight her motion sickness by watching the horizon.

"Thank you, Hero."

The witch climbed up into the carriage.

"All right, Filo! Let's go, but take it slow."

"Okay!"

All the pedestrians stopped to stare at Filo as we passed. They probably weren't used to seeing talking monsters. We proceeded down the street slowly, to the tapping of Filo's feet.

It felt like the last few days had been so busy. I mean, it always felt like the days were busy, but these last days had felt even more so. And to think, it was all Filo's fault.

As for the witch… Well, I wanted to learn magic, but if I had asked right then, I couldn't be sure how she would respond.

And I felt guilty for not studying as much as I should have.

The witch had given us those books, so I wanted to repay her kindness by studying from them. Yes, I'd have to devote more time to it.

I didn't know all the ins and outs of this world like the other heroes did. So I had to be learning new things all the time. Even still, I needed to give special priority to learning the writing system, and to understanding the recipes I'd gotten. If I didn't, it would be a waste.

"Huh… it's so light."

Filo was yawning as she walked, and now she started to mutter to herself.

There were three people in the carriage, and she was complaining that it was too light?

This was good. I already had an idea what I wanted to try… and I'd need Filo to do it.

Shirou decided to follow us on top of Fafnir, as he wanted to get a feel on riding a dragon.

When we arrived at Riyute, the witch gave me 25 pieces of silver.

"What's this for?"

"For the ride."

"Oh… Thanks."

Maybe we could make money off this too?

Riyute was still invested in rebuilding. I checked in at the inn, and the innkeeper gave us a friendly greeting.

"Okay, let's get started on Raphtalia's motion sickness training. Also known as: lumber transport duty."

We'd agreed to help carry lumber in exchange for meat.

"Huh?!"

Raphtalia looked upset. Then again, she was going to have to fight motion sickness all day.

"We're going to be carried around by Filo from now on, so you better get used to it."

"Pfft. Fine."

"Okay!"

"Filo, you're going to do the pulling."

"Okay!"

Apparently Filolials really did enjoy pulling carriages. Her eyes were shining she was so excited.

"Um… did you have some kind of plan?"

"Yes, I was thinking of becoming a traveling merchant. The local governor suggested it to me."

"A traveling merchant?"

"Yeah. We don't have all that many products, but I would focus on medicine and transport. We could cover a good range."

"Hm…"

Raphtalia didn't seem very interested. To be fair, it wasn't like I had confidence that we would succeed. But we were about to start traveling anyway, so it seemed like a natural idea.

"Which means, if we started transporting things, that Filo will need to run at pretty much full speed. I can't have you getting sick on me all the time."

"I understand that, but…"

"Oh c'mon. I know a good, smooth place that should be pretty easy to start with. You can get used to it there."

"You know a place like that?"

"Sure."

And so, at the start of the day's work, I put Raphtalia somewhere she wouldn't get sick… on Filo's back.

"Master, you can ride there anytime you want… but why do I have to give her a ride?"

Filo grumbled to herself as Raphtalia climbed up on her back.

"I feel the same way. This is so embarrassing."

When Filo was in her Filolial Queen form, she was like a giant owl, which made sitting on her back look a little ridiculous.

"You comfy?"

"Yup, feels good!"

Maybe because this was her "real form," Filo seemed perfectly content.

"Okay then, let's go!"

"Yay! I'll help you so much! I'll be just as useful as Raphtalia!"

"It's not a competition!"

"But I won't lose!"

Filo, with Raphtalia on her back, started to pull the carriage.

With the weight of the carriage and us passengers, it must have been pretty heavy, but not heavy enough for Filo, apparently. What did they have to fight about? I spent the time on the road with my book open, studying the writing system and trying to translate the intermediate recipe book.

…Tap, tap.

…Tap, tap.

The rhythmic sound of Filo's footsteps was excellent ambience noise for absorbing myself in the erudite and obtuse world of foreign character sets and language. But then I heard them…

"Why? Why in that form?"

"Huh? Because I want my master to be pleased!"

…Tap, tap.

"He'll just be mad. You better stop."

"But Master… Master likes people like you, doesn't he?"

Huh? I looked up to see Filo transformed back in to a human, with Raphtalia still on her back. Raphtalia looked very uncomfortable, and she was talking to Filo, trying to get her to change back.

Some adventurers passed us on the street, and they pointed in our direction and started whispering among themselves.

"Stop acting like that! People are going to start gossiping!"

I could hear the rumors now. I bought a slave and put her on the back of another little girl, and forced them to pull my luggage carriage down the street. That wouldn't reflect well on me at all.

All the while Shirou was fighting the urge to laugh, I guess if it was me in there I would also be laughing.

"Really? What's wrong?"

"Don't pull the carriage as a human." I said in a rather tired voice.

"Fiiine."

She gave a disappointed nod and turned back into a monster. It must have been boring for her or something.

I swear, I might get grayhairs at this rate.

Raphtalia wasn't sick yet, so that was good. It was time to pick up the pace a little.

"Okay, Filo! Let's speed up."

"Yay!"

Raphtalia let out a yelp then hunkered down and grabbed tight to Raphtalia's feathers.

That should get us where we were going faster.

We spent the next few hours working on Raphtalia's motion sickness prevention practice.

Fafnir, not wanting to be overcome also went to match her speed.

Shirou had reinforced himself and the googles he made helped quite a bit when going at high speeds.

Fafnir it seems did get a boost to his XP as he was part of the party and had rising to be a match to Filo.

Both of them play fight a lot and became friends. Naofumi watched as Filo played with Fafnir in her human form and Filolial.

Shirou also taught Filo a bit of hand to hand combat to use in her human form. As it would be quite ace, as many would underestimate her as she looked (and is) like a small child.

**P.O.V Shirou **

"That's the way, use your hips more to create more power, don't forget to close your fist tight and use your knuckles"

"Haii" she said.

"Filo… you better do as Shirou says, any orders he gives counts as mine" Naofumi said as he looked at the spar.

I was teaching her many forms that I learned from other heroic spirits, such as Li Shu Wen and many others who practiced oriental martial arts… Herakles, Achiles, Hector and Penthasilia (among other notable greek heroes) with Pankreaton.

The later was scary as hell, especially if she saw Achilles. I shivered as I remember how the room at Chakdea became when she caugh sight of him…

So much money was used to repair 13 wings.

Anyways the lessons went smoothly. She had an extraordinary **instinct **that served her well in battle, but due to her still being immature it was quite easy to get past it, not to mention my own way of fighting made me a bad match against being more power, stronger, or faster than me.

A few days and lessons later and Filo was able to use many techniques I taught her to increase her striking power.

Also, the local governor gave Naofumi a brand new carriage as a present, the whole village gathered around and made a party to cheer us.

Much food was had and even I joined in the cooking, they did not want me to do so, but after they tasted my food… they had no complains, I made sure to take Filo's hunger into account, I was used to that level of gluttony thanks to certain King of Knights that shall go unnamed.

It seems as Naofumi had decided to become a traveling merchant to raise more funds, that was a great idea, However Raphtalia did not share our enthusiasm as it meant she had to suffer movement sickness.

"It might be tough at first, but you'll get used to it." I said.

"Okay."

I looked over at Filo and looked her over carefully.

"Filo, what's your job?"

"Let's see… I'm supposed to pull the carriage and go where you tell me to go, Master."

"Right"

"And if we meet that Spear guy, I'm supposed to kick him."

"Exactly." Naofumi said with a nod

"That last part's not true!"

Raphtalia had her arms crossed, like she was going to right all the wrongs in the world.

"What? Why are you looking at me like I'm weird?" Naofumi said.

If we see Motoyasu, Filo would kick him. What was weird about that?

Oh well, I disliked him because he is stupid and a womanizer and reminds me of Shinji.

"All right! This is the official start of our traveling merchant life. I'll hide in the carriage. Raphtalia, when we get to a new town, you start selling our wares from the front." Naofumi said.

"Oh, all right…"

Our poor reputation was still alive and well out in the world beyond Riyute. If Naofumi were in charge of the sales, we'd never sell anything—who would want to negotiate with a criminal? It only made sense to put Raphtalia in charge.

Raphtalia was pretty, and she had the personality for it. She wouldn't be shy.

"Shall we be on our way?" Naofumi said.

"Oh, Hero."

"Huh? What is it?" he asked.

"Please, take this…"

The governor handed me a piece of parchment.

"What's this?"

"The commercial bill of passage that we discussed earlier."

"Oh yeah…"

With the bill of passage in hand, we'd be able to sell my things in different towns without having to pay the local governors any tariffs. It would make our life much easier. Now, whether or not these local governors should really be charging the heroes to pass through their towns… that's another story altogether.

Motoyasu clearly thought that way.

"Travel safely."

"Thanks. We'll be on our way now." I said.

"I hope we can help you out more in the future. You've done so much for us."

"Just don't push yourselves too hard." Naofumi said with a calm smile.

"Okay!"

And so we left Riyute behind and started our new lives as traveling merchants.

The first thing we tried was selling various medicines.

We didn't have a huge selection prepared, so we set our prices lower than the typical market price.

We started with healing medicine and nutritional drinks. They were both better than just your average medicines and drinks, and so I set the price a little higher than our other products.

Then we would stock up on herbs and supplies and leave for the next village—I'd use our time on the road to compound new medicines.

Filo was really fast, so we almost made it to the next town in a single the day, though there were times that we had to stay camped in the wilderness. On nights like that we would stop the carriage, build a fire, and have dinner under the stars.

"Master! There's room next to me! Come sleep with me!"

We'd finished eating, and Filo transformed back into her monster form and was tapping the spot on the ground next to her.

"It's too hot sleeping next to you…"

Filo still wanted to sleep with me every night. I'd ordered her not to turn into a monster when we were at an inn, so she took the opportunity whenever we camped out.

Granted, we were alone out there, so there was no one she could inconvenience…

"Filo, you sure do like Naofumi-sama, don't you?"

"Yeah! I like him even more than you do, Big-Sister!"

"Don't call me that!"

Her problem was with big-sister?

"Then what should I call you?"

"Hm… how about Mommy? I was there when you hatched from your egg, and I've known you the whole time! Seems fitting, doesn't it?"

"I dunno… Big-Sister!"

They kept fighting amongst themselves, like they couldn't decide whether they were friends or enemies.

Filo was just like a little kid, so she couldn't help but get too serious about things.

Actually, I guess she really was a little kid. And she acted like one, she reminded me of Illya as both were unreasonable and bullheaded.

"Okay, okay, both of you should get to bed. When my shift is up, I'm going to wake you!" Naofumi said.

"Stop treating me like a little kid!"

"Yes! Naofumi-sama, you treat me like a child!"

"Oh, whoops! I keep forgetting how grown up the both of you are!" he said rolling his eyes.

"You don't mean it!"

"Yeah, Master! You liar!"

But they really were like children. And he'd decided to be a parent to them both.

"I want to help you keep watch, Master!"

Filo picked up some rocks and started rubbing them together over random grasses in a loose approximation of my mortar and pestle.

"Ew! It smells funny!"

"Yeah, it does."

If you could make medicine from random grasses, it wouldn't be so hard, would it?

"Why isn't it working?"

"You can learn some things just by watching, but others take a little more practice."

"Is that why you can't pull a carriage?"

"Why do I have to pull a carriage?"

"Why are you and I different?"

"What's wrong with being different?"

Just like a kid… she'd attack anything she could think of.

If we just kept going back and forth with questions, then eventually she'd get confused and have to give up.

"Argh… Master is so… so stupid!"

"Who are you calling stupid!" Naofumi said as he conked her head.

We kept at it for a while, and he was able to get some work done too.

**P.O.V Naofumi**

Shirou helped out by using Reinforcement on our medicines and energy drinks, it enhanced it by 1.5 times, making them much more effective than the ones sold at markets and the effects were stronger than usual, my medicines and energy drinks were stronger than the ones sold by shops but with Shirou it was on another level, we also sold cheap, so we garnered more costumers as our potions were much potent and cheaper than the ones at the market.

"Huh?"

We were on our way to the next village and had been traveling for about an hour, which I'd spent working in the back, when I noticed a strange sound.

Coming from the other side of the carriage wall came the sound of a man desperately out of breath. I poked my head out to see a flustered man running beside us, a bag in his outstretched hand.

"What are you in such a rush for?"

I figured that showing curiosity in times like this could easily lead to a sale.

We slowed the carriage down so that I could hear what the man had to say.

"I have to get to the village across the mountains…"

"You're running to the village over the mountains?"

Apparently his parents were sick and he was running to get medicine for them. Filo had just overtaken him on the road.

"Yes, and without a minute to spare!"

"Filo, if you ran as fast as you could, how long would it take to get there?" Shirou asked.

"Lemme think… Well, I could go faster if I didn't have to pull the carriage…" she said tilting her head a bit.

"Fine." I said.

I looked over to Raphtalia, and she nodded immediately, already understanding what I meant to say.

"We'll take you there for a silver piece."

"What?"

The man was shocked.

"But I was just going to buy medicine… See, I don't have enough money…"

I sighed but decided to do something better.

"You can just give us something worth a silver piece. Or just bring us medicinal herbs the next time you see us. Of course, if you don't keep your promise…"

"Oh, well, if that's okay then…"

"Great! That settles it! Filo?"

"Okay!"

I moved over onto Filo's back, and pulled the man up to sit with me.

"Woah!"

The man was surprised, but Filo covered him with her wings and took off at full speed.

Raphtalia was waving to us from the carriage, Shirou put the harness on Fafnir and followed after a bit.

"Here we go!"

"Oh!"

Filo might have been shaped like an owl now, but it had done nothing to slow her speed.

Before we knew it, we had already arrived at the man's house.

"That was so fast!"

"You better hurry up and get them their medicine. Careful now!"

"Okay!"

The man went into the house, and I followed him inside. We hadn't finished discussing my payment.

It was an average farmer's house. I could hear violent coughing coming from somewhere inside.

"Ma… It's medicine, you gotta drink it."

I followed the sound of the voices, and came across the young man giving medicine to two older people, both with pale faces.

I didn't know what kind of medicine it was, but it seemed to be more effective than the medicines I was accustomed to.

"Hey. I'll take care of administering the medicine. Why don't you go boil some water and make them something good?"

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm just waiting to see what happens."

I took the medicine from the man, and, supporting the weight of the old woman, gently gave her some medicine.

I hoped that the medicine efficacy skill booster I'd learned before would work.

Cough… Cough…

The old woman took the medicine and managed to swallow some of it.

The woman was suddenly enveloped in a shower of glowing light. Apparently that signified that the medicine had been effective. She even looked healthier. Some color had returned to her pale face, and she seemed to be coughing less than she had been.

"Just try and relax. Your family will be back with food soon."

She managed a weak smile and then lay back down.

"Now then…"

I left the room and went into the kitchen.

"Did they take the medicine?"

"Yes, and it seems to have worked."

He sighed deeply, as though a great weight had been removed from his shoulders.

"I'll be back later, so make sure you have my money."

"Okay."

I left the house, found Filo, and quickly road back to where we had left the carriage.

When we arrived back at the village the man was there waiting for us, looking tense.

"Um…"

"What is it?"

We talked as we unloaded the luggage from the carriage.

"My mother seems to be doing much better…but just who are you?"

"You don't need to know."

If he knew my name, he'd instantly associate me with the bad rumors that have been going around. And he would start to doubt me.

"Please just tell me your name."

"I'm not obligated to. The medicine worked, right? So bring me a piece of silver, or something worth that much."

"All right!"

He ran back to the house, flipped through some materials, and then came back out with some food.

"So that's it, huh? Fine, well, keep an eye out for us, okay?"

"Yes! Thank you very much!"

The man looked very happy.

I suppose it's a bit of a digression, but some time later on we actually did come back to this village. The old lady was very energetic, almost too much so.

I went back to my studies in the back of the carriage. I was trying to read the intermediate medicine recipe book. The recipe book seemed easier to understand than the magic book, so I was starting with that one. But after I dedicated a lot of time to translating a recipe, I found out that it was a medicine I already knew… I was disappointed.

Come to think of it, I had been pretty neglectful of my studies up until now. I'd been so busy for the last month that I hadn't had time to think about it, but if I ever made it out of here alive, I'd have to say something to my brother, who had worn himself out studying too hard.

"Naofumi-sama, I think we are pretty much done here for today."

We'd arrived just past noon, and now evening was approaching.

"Are there any parcels or letters that we could take to the next village?"

"I've already collected them."

I climbed out of the carriage and helped load up the luggage.

Granted, there were only certain kinds of people that would give their luggage to a traveling merchant they'd never met. It was mostly cheap things that people wouldn't be too upset to lose. Even still, we were able to make some good change.

We travelled this way for a while, moving from village to village and town to town.

Whenever someone wanted restorative medicine, I would give it to them myself, and that way they could take advantage of my medicine efficacy skill.

After we'd been at it for two weeks or so, we began to get a bit of a reputation as the merchants with the weird bird that sold everything.

When we had made a good name for ourselves, people became much more trusting, and more and more pedestrians came to ask us for rides. So before long our profits started to rise.

There were some really good things about the traveling merchant's lifestyle.

The first was that I could sell the medicine that I made while we were on the road. The second was that I was able to absorb any monsters that we came across on our travels. Of course, all I really ever got out of it was typical status boosts, but I couldn't complain much, I mean Shirou did enhance my attack and defense and even made me fire-resistant.

One other thing I learned after we started traveling was that monsters were very different depending on the locale. Considering that I could grow stronger by absorbing a variety of different monsters, starting this traveling gig was turning out to be a really good arrangement.

The other good thing was that I was now in a position to hear all sorts of gossip.

I'd had no idea for the longest time, but now I was able to make a good guess where the other heroes, Motoyasu, Ren, and Itsuki, had based themselves.

Motoyasu seemed to be out to the southwest of the castle, where he had apparently saved a starving village by breaking the seal on some kind of legendary crop. He must have known to go there since he knew everything about the place already. It actually reminded me a lot of the place we've been to, where we fought the Nue.

Ren had gone to the southeast of the castle, but apparently he would go anywhere that was inhabited by tough monsters. I'd heard various tales of his exploits—like that he'd defeated a violent dragon somewhere out to the East.

As for Itsuki… I wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but he had gone with some adventurers that had visited the kingdom seeking help. He went with them to a country in the North, where the government was corrupt. He fought with the resistance to overthrow an evil lord.

Having said that, Itsuki's story was missing the most details, so I couldn't really be sure of anything. I'd only heard vague references to him as "that adventurer with the strong bow" and so on.

"It seems Itsuki is trying to do a Robin Hood." Shirou said with a grimace.

He told us a bit of that Archer servant, as he was raised in the forest he had learned druid craft, making him a force to be reckoned in a forest, with the ability "Faceless King" he was able to snipe anyone and never be found.

He explained that he was actually a pretty mellow guy but due to his tactics people cursed him and tried to act as if they did not know him, all the while he would keep protecting them.

He had died near a Yew tree after betrayal from an Abbey.

All of this sounded a lot like something I'd read before coming to this world, something I'd read in the The Records of the Four Holy Weapons.

Anyway, so that's what our travels were like.

At the end of the two weeks, our stats were looking like this:

Naofumi: LV 40

Raphtalia: LV 45

Filo: LV 38

Fafnir: LV 36

Shirou: LV &$# €£¥₩

I guess it was because she was a monster, but Filo was certainly leveling up quickly.

Filo was now much stronger, physically, than she had been. While she used to use both hands (wings?) to pull the carriage, she now only used one, and yawned the whole time.

Naturally, I tried to get her to try harder, but she only protested.

"But it's so light that I lose my motivation!"

Whatever.

Afterwards, all the shields that I got while traveling only unlocked status boosters.

If there were any interesting shields… well, there was this one:

**Crystal Ore Shield: ability unlocked:**

**equip bonus: fine crafting 1**

We'd come into a booming mining town, and there was a poor-quality crystal lying there. I let the shield absorb it, and that was what I got.

It seemed like a skill that could lead to some serious money making possibilities, but I didn't have enough information to go trying it out just yet.

I tried polishing the crystal ore, but it just broke and crumbled, so it must need to be combined with something else in a recipe. Either that, or I was just doing it wrong.

Regardless, I still needed to translate that book the apothecary had given me.

Sure, if I'd spent two weeks on it, it should have been simple enough to read. And I'd had the thing for close to three weeks now, so I should have been able to glean some information from it.

Antidote, weed killer, healing salve, restorative medicine (I'd already made that), nutritional drink (I'd made that too), gunpowder, acidic water, magical water, soul healing medicine, insecticide, were the recipes I'd been able to figure out, and after I went through them all, the book was over.

Apparently you could alter the effectiveness of these basic intermediate medicines by mixing them with different additives. It was all rather vague, so I wouldn't say that I really had a handle on it. Even still—I was starting to realize that the recipes the apothecary had given me were pretty average for intermediate level.

Well, I'd been able to figure out the book, so I didn't think I'd need it anymore. I let the shield absorb it. This was the shield I unlocked:

**Book Shield: ability unlocked:**

**equip bonus: magic power up (small)**

I thought for sure the shield would unlock some intermediate medicine recipes, but I was wrong.

And on top of that, the shield's defense rating was really low!

It happened the day after I finished translating the recipe book.

We came upon a monster called Torrent, defeated it, and I absorbed it into my shield.

**Torrent Shield: conditions met**

**Blue Torrent Shield: conditions met **

**Black Torrent Shield: conditions met **

**Torrent Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: plant classification 2**

**Blue Torrent Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: intermediate compounding recipe 2**

**Black Torrent Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: rookie compounding**

Intermediate recipes? Was this some kind of joke? I just finished translating that book!

Well, at least I'd only done up until the healing salve. The last time a shield unlocked recipes it was from a Mush, so I guess plant-based monsters would yield recipes. Even still, after I'd put all that work into it all—here they were: unlocked just like that.

The antidote, weed killer, and healing salve could be made from grasses, but I didn't even know where to get the materials to make anything like gunpowder.

The apothecary's notes made it seem like you could make substitutions in the case of gunpowder. There was something called Snappy Grass that could substitute, so I did that and tried to make some gunpowder.

It was like a crumbly powder, something like ash that could burn. I gathered it into a bag and made a makeshift bomb.

I set flame to it and planned to throw it at an enemy. It started crackling, but then I dropped it at my feet!

I was scared, but fortunately it didn't produce anything you could really call an "explosion."

The acidic water needed to be stored in a glass bottle. It was a liquid that, apparently, was only slightly less acidic than sulfuric acid. It wasn't made from grasses but was made by taking different natural ores and adding them to water… or something like that. I hadn't made it yet, so I can't say for sure… but what kind of person would want such a thing, and what would they want it for? Anyway, I could make some just to absorb into the shield.

The Magic Power Water would restore your consumed magic points when you drank it. But the materials necessary to make it were pretty hard to get your hands on.

If you made it with commercially available grasses, it would cost a small fortune. If we were going to go through the effort of making it, it would be better to sell it than to use it. Just like the Magic Power Water, the Soul Healing Medicine would also replenish the user's SP. But Raphtalia and Filo didn't seem to understand what SP was, and they said it just tasted delicious, but like normal water.

The insecticide was easy. You just mixed various herbs that insects hated and either clumped them into a solid or dissolved them in water for a liquid.

So out of my new recipes, the ones that would be good for production and sales were the antidote, the healing salve, and the insecticide.

And the weed killer would be good too. You could make so much of it from so little material that all I'd need to do was give some thought as to where to sell it. I could let the shield absorb the leftovers.

**Anti-Poison Shield: conditions met**

**Gurihosato Shield: conditions met**

**Medicine Shield: conditions met**

**Plant Fire Shield: conditions met **

**Killer Insect Shield Alpha: conditions met **

**Anti-Poison Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: defense power 5**

**Gurihosato Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: attack from plant enemies reduced by 5%**

**Medicine Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: medicine effective range expansion (small)**

**Plant Fire Shield: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: fire resistance (small)**

**Killer Insect Shield Alpha: ability locked:**

**equip bonus: attack from insect enemies reduced by 3%**

I bet the original ability for the Anti-Poison Shield was Poison Resistance (medium). But I'd already learned that skill from the Chimera Viper Shield, so it must have changed to accommodate that.

The Medicine Shield would increase some kind of range, though I wasn't sure exactly what it meant.

It could have meant that the range for any particular medicine would be increased, but it could also mean the number of people it could work on, would increase.

What was Gurihosato? It seemed like the name of some kind of weed killer product. As for Killer Insect Shield Alpha, I imagined that you could produce a beta version or something by changing up the kinds of grasses that you used in the concoction.

The effect of cutting 3% from the damage of certain kinds of enemies seemed pretty useful to me.

The real problem was trying to read the magic book. It was very difficult.

Lately it seemed that Raphtalia was starting to get the hang of it. She'd produced certain effects that looked like they were on the right path. She'd been able to produce an orb of light that would float before her for a few seconds. Considering I was the Shield Hero, I didn't look so great in comparison.

Filo could use her transformation magic too, so I asked Filo about it after Raphtalia had gone to bed.

It was kind of hard to think of what she did as magic, per se, but I thought it would be good to hear what she thought anyway.

"Yeah, so I, um… I just think about my power, like way down inside, right? And I just like, think about what I want to be and, uh… then I be it!"

Right. Whatever. At least I figured out that she wasn't doing it as the result of some reasoned process.

But what if I could read the book but still found myself unable to practice the magic? I'd heard that magic can be funny like that.

And I came from a world that didn't have any magic at all, so if it turned out that I wasn't able to use it that would be… upsetting. I had to learn it. I just had to.

Not to please the witch from the magic shop… but to stay alive.

Shirou also took time to teach me, however as he explained before he was mediocre at best in his world, if this was a third rate I would hate to fight a second or first rate.

When the waves came, there wasn't much need for me to participate in the fighting. Besides, who knew how we would be treated after the enemy had been vanquished? The best job for me would be to protect the nearby villages and towns. And when I was doing that, being able to use magic or not—that might decide whether or not I made it through the day alive.

I could have bought a crystal ball… but if I could learn magic from this book for free, then that seemed like a better way to go. So lately, when we were on the road, I had the magic book in one hand, and I tried to read it. There was actually a benefit from this, rather than using it on an instinctual level I could research it, analyse it and even upgrade it so it works better or consumes less energy, subliminating it.

I asked Raphtalia how she did it, and she said that she synchronized her magic power with the words on the page, and her soul reacted… Just like Filo's had been, her explanation was impossible to follow.

Granted, I could follow it better than Filo's… but what was "magic power" anyway? Did it mean they could feel it, like a sixth sense?

My head was filled with questions like that, and it was driving me crazy.

Well anyway, that's how we spent those last two weeks.

Shirou then came with a brilliant idea

"think of your magic power as water and your body as its vessel, try hearding the magic power towards the valve that are the words of the book"

That- that is much easier to understand.

I spend the rest of the night working on it, I managed to succeed a bit.

After I made some headway Shirou came up to me.

"There is something about your shield I been meaning to tell you about"

I looked to him.

"When I analysed the other 3 weapons I saw that each one followed a different 'system' to upgrade their weapons, however that system follows the imposed logic they had of the rules of the games they had played… ergo, should you **believe **that all of that is possible your shield should be able to further grow and adapt their systems into yours, that way you would also be able to use weapon refinement and 'monster drop' as well… those weapons follow an eerily similar rules to my magecraft" he said.

Belief.

The power of belief.

Your own belief will become your strength.

It sounded a bit corny, like something out of a kids manga, but in a world of magic like this… would it not make sense?

And so… I dwelved further onto the shield… until I finally did it… I have unlocked new functions and paths.

"And those idiots I bet are fighting each other about who is right about it… and rather than sharing they want to one up each other… well… I guess the underdog is goinf to be the one to beat you all" I said with a manic laughter.

I had never felt so good, besides when Filo kicked Motoyasu in the crotch.

But this was just small, he wanted that **bitch** to feel what he felt.

He wanted to see the look of despair when he finally unmasked her and her trash of a father. When it was him on the top looking down at them.

Shirou excused himself and went out.

**P.O.V Shirou **

As I exited the room I took a deep sigh.

Without warning I threw a knife (that was a black key that I had altered into the form and shape of a knife) at a wall… I heard a gasp and walked up to the now pinned person.

"Now, I been aware of you for quite some time, but my curiosity has won over, so… who are you and who do you serve?"

"I won't talk… you will never get anything out of me degojaru"

Shirou rose an eyebrow.

"It seems you are mistaken, you see… I am not barbaric to torture someone for information… not when there are simpler ways to do so" I said with a smile.

I decided to use the weapon that I had intended to use on the princess.

In my hand was Fragarach, I pressed it to this 'ninja' and asked.

"Who do you work for"

The thing about that Noble Phantasm is that it had a very innocuous name…

Answerer.

It was used by the Celtic god to determine where a soul should go by asking it questions and depending on the answers the would would head to rest or torment. None could lie under it, falsehood was stripped away and only the truth shall come out, not even other Devine entities are exempt of it.

**20 minutes later**

The 'shadow' was crying. No matter what he did he could not answer with a lie or half truths.

"I am sorry my queen… I am a failure of a shadow degojaru"

I felt a bit of pitty to the shadow, but I still needed answers.

"Does the queen know what those 2 are doing?"

"Indeed, so, in order to correct all the wrongs she is allowing these things to happen so both father and daughter,the first princess and king, dig their own graves, while killing them would be ideal, such thing would create political chaos...it is a pitty that the king has lost the wisdom he had so long ago… I… I was not supposed to say that… stop that degojaru!" he said indignantly.

"Send a message to the queen from me 'I will not tell Naofumi, that is the Shield Hero, of your plans, and we shall assist you with it, so long as she clears all the phony charges against both of us and also chastices the other heroes"

The shadow gulped.

With a yank, the knife dislodged from his shadow, freeing him.

He then vanished into the shadows… to report what had just transpired.

"I am going to get into sooo much trouble degojaru"

Chapter End


	8. Chapter 8

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Author notes: In this fic, the max cap before rank up is 50, it makes more sense. Just an FYI.

Chapter 8: Turning Point

As we went on many people enjoyed seeing us come over, they flocked around and cheered at the sight of Firo.

She was nick-named the bird god and that everywhere she went with her cart delivering great medicines and other stuff. Bringing miracles and whatnot.

She loved to sing little songs as she went on and enjoyed the feel of a fully loaded cart.

Shirou and Fafnir where a tad further to scout ahead, thanks to both of them they captured a band of thieves that were thinking of hi-jacking Naofumi and kidnap one of the passengers who was a jewelerer.

The bandits were tipped of a costy item he was holding on behalf of someone else and decided to 'liberate' it from him.

Fafnir made fast work of the thieves. With a smack of his long and robust tail he had send those fools to dreamland… as well as broken a fair few ribs.

Shirou and Fafnir were ahead and thus took care of them before they became a nuisance, however one of them recognised Naofumi and ousted him as being the (criminal) Shield hero, that made the jewelerer be wary of him, much to Naofumi's annoyance.

They were all tied up and carried to be sold as slaves or turned up for a reward… depends on which was higher.

Shirou had heard about the Bow hero going to liberate a corrupt land from a despot ruler, and was worried, as the Bow hero was a kid and did not know nor could he possibly see the ramifications of his actions, he decided that after this little jaunt he would leave Naofumi, Raphtalia and Firo on their own while he and Fafnir found more clues on the waves and about the vassal weapons.

The merchant jeweler then saw that Naofumi's rep was bogus and that he was a rather willy bastard to get as much profit as possible from the thieves, we had looted them of all of their weapons and armor and also got where their hideout was, obviously we threatened to use our respective mounts to eat them if they refused/lied.

Needless to say the merchant was impressed, so much so that he decided to invest in him, he taught him a bit of his craft and even gave him (second hand) tools for him to practice. They later learned that he was a rather powerful member of a guild, and that he wasn't known for sharing or teaching.

He taught Naofumi how to imbue magic into the items to generate magical properties on them. It was not dissimilar to the ones from magecraft, but they were mostly low to mid level mystic code.

Well, Naofumi could store more magic on jewels now than Rin or Luvia ever could… also he could actually gather them at no cost to him other than that of his time, and even enhance the properties of the jewels as he works with then.

Yeah… Shirou decided NEVER to tell Rin about Naofumi's OP jewelcraft.

He shuddered as he saw Rin making a geass contract with him forcing him to hunt and work on jewels for her.

While Luvia might just bribe him to not work for and avoid Rin.

Worst thing was, he was probably right… however, would a geass even WORK on him?

It's not a slave seal… so… probably? he did not wish to experiment on that.

They went to mine for ores at a mine that were told to go by the merchant, thanks to Naofumi's shield he was able to find and break through the walls to reach the ore at a much faster pace than a normal person could.

The jewels he made mostly became of excellent quality, however when he made accessories with them and embed them with magic it lowered in quality.

I mean, making accessories in a moving cart is rather hard.

Another thing was that in this world, jewels where MUCH cheaper than in either of our worlds.

Another reason why Shirou would not dare tell Rin, she would use him and Saber to subjugate the land.

Saber would be all on board as this land needed a strong leader who honestly could rule them and not mislead them.

It would be a HUGE step up from that foolish king.

Anyways Naofumi managed to sell one 2 days later for 80 silver, not bad.

Shirou suggested to Naofumi to study fashion trends and tailor it to the fashion of the time, and he could ask for higher prices and people would pay for it.

Naofumi nodded, it wasn't a bad idea, but just not now as his plate was full, with learning how to read the language of the land.

The merchant told us that there was a town in dire need of weed killer.

We set forth and as we neared the town they noticed the rather… large amount of flora around.

The plants had proliferated so that even the town was invaded by the thick vines.

A villager came up and was delighted to see a merchant who had weed killer, it left a bit of a bad taste in our mouths that we would be profiting from this disaster, but we needed money to survive.

Naofumi had little to think, as he had a rather deep hatred to most of the population in this world due to Melty, so he was not as bothered as Shirou or Raphtalia.

They learned that this happened due to the completely idiotic, self-centered, blind to anything that does not suit his perspective, ignorant, arrogant…. you know what? The list is long and I think you get it as I have no doubt that you, my dear readers, are smart enough and have read the manga, watched the anime or, maybe seen the wiki.

Anyways, it seems that the empty chest we had found in the cavern to look for the jewel for the spindler, which we found ample warning about the item inside and how NOT to free it, lest disaster occurs, ended up becoming this little SNAFU.

The plants were normal for about 2 to 3 weeks… but then they started mutating and becoming parasitic.

They asked us to save them.

Shirou looked at Naofumi with a hard stare and resolution, Naofumi relented but asked for payment, and to be free from any and all liability for anything that could/would go wrong.

Raphtalia, Firo and Naofumi started to attack at the plants and give the weed killer to the people who got infected by the plants. With Shirou's use of reinforcement the weed killer was much more potent than any Naofumi could do on his own, which in itself was more potent than that of others.

However the propagation of these plants was insane, they needed to cut this problem by the root…pun intended.

"All of you go back" Shirou said.

In his hand was a black matte bow.

A spark of lightning appeared in his hand and a spiral sword that looked like a screw appeared.

Surely he wouldn't mean too…

"My core is twisted in madness"

His sight was set, the target was about 1 kilometers away, he would use the full power of this Noble Phantasm.

He pulled back the arrow, the screw twisted on itself making itself more aerodynamic and streamlined.

"Caladbolg II!"

Caladbolg, the spiral sword of the hero Fergus, another top tier sword from RPGs, However this one was a bit different from games, Naofumi deduced due to the use of alteration.

He could not understand what had been unleashed just yet, as an arrow wouldn't damage the plants as much as blades or the weed killer.

The thing is, Shirou had used it as a broken phantasm, further increasing the destructive power behind it.

Once the arrow/sword landed on the middle of it…

**BOOOOOM**

A prismatic light enveloped the area, rising a HUGE cloud in the shape of a mushroom.

Naofumi and Raphtalia were both taken back by the sheer power and destruction Shirou had casually unleashed with an arrow/sword.

Both of their hairs and tail got blown back by the wind created by the explosion.

"You have weapons that can unleash the same destruction… as a tactical nuke?!" Naofumi asked in awe.

"You better hurry, the main plant monster is badly wounded but I doubt it will stay that way for long, pour the weed killer into it ASAP" Shirou said.

Firo, in her human form, and Raphtalia poured it around the roots of the main Bioplant as Naofumi cut the plants with his shield edge and absorbed all he could into it.

It took half a day, but we managed to save the town. As well as Naofumi being able to unlock quite a few new shields.

We set an emergency tent to treat the gravely injured and high priority ones such as children and the elderly.

Shirou had a strange staff, with a snake on it, on the general area of it all medicines and healing spells had major effect and it compounded with the shield's own, making even more people be healed by expanding the range of the healing.

The whole problem was due to the famine caused by bad crops… so Motoyasu's act of (stupidity) kindness was not bad, however he did not take caution and just gave the seeds as is.

Naofumi decided to experiment with the Shield that allowed him to edit the bioplant's status, he found out that it had a mutation parameter and that it was due to that factor that the plant had gone berserk, along with proliferation, so he edited it so the status where high… but not crazy high as it was before and took out the mutation factor.

Thanks to Shirou's OP ranged AOA attack we managed to clear the whole place and managed to destroy the main Bioplant quite fast and saved a lot of their stock of weed killers and rather we sold most of our potions.

We managed to save the town, it would take a while for them to reconstruct but with the sheer surpluses of food they now had, well… they will do it soon.

They had, however, sneakily gave the surplus of it to us, as it wouldn't fit otherwise, Firo's cart was fully loaded with them, much to her absolute delight.

Shirou and Fafnir were on the front, making sure there were no more thieves around, Firo and Fafnir later enjoyed a rather large portion of food that Shirou cooked.

Raphtalia decided to ask Shirou for a small favor.

"Shirou-sama, could you… uhmm… maybe teach me how to cook?" she said with big round eyes.

She was adorable, it was hard to believe that she was 10 with a body like that.

And so Shirou took time to teach her every time he had cooking duty, as Naofumi also was trying to increase his cooking skills with the Shield.

Shirou gently and slowly begun to pound all his cooking knowledge on Raphtalia, who began to slowly but surely accept it and learn little by little.

It got a bit rough when Firo decided to crash in, but we used her as a taste tester, so either way she was happy as she was being fed. Afterwards it was Firo's training regimen, Shirou taught her how to use her legs in her human form as well as her punches, similar to what berserker did to Saber during the 5th Holy grail war. With a lot of flexibility and power she took to Herakles style quite well. Pankreaton was a rather good fighting style for her.

Firo was gracious and allowed Fafnir to sleep on her plumage as he was a dragon and thus cold blooded.

The next morning we arrived to a town that looked like a ghost town.

Naofumi sold all the potions and asked what had happened.

To Shirou's surprise, Ren had killed a black dragon.

"_I doubt he has an anti-dragon sword, so he used overwhelming power… not bad_"

However all praise that came to him was lost after hearing how callous he was.

"_Did… did that idiot not even took the heart or even bathed in the blood of the dragon?! is he an idiot?! he must be an idiot right?!" _Shirou thought to himself as an image of Siegfried come to mind.

It seems that the dragon's body was decomposing due to it not being properly buried and that was making toxins and miasma that went downwind towards the unlucky town.

While the medicine did work, it only was a stopgap measure, we needed to deal with the direct cause of it all, the corpse.

Shirou was a bit worried for other reasons.

Dragons were prideful beings, look at Saber, she had the aspect of the red dragon so, albeit toned down, she had a LOT of pride, albeit most came due to being a knight AND a king.

So… if a being with enormous magical power such as a dragon was slain by someone as inferior as a human.

Naofumi decided to get rid of the body, provided they get paid of course.

With some work Shirou managed to trace Asklepios mask and gave a copy of it to Raphtalia and Firo.

"Look onee-chan, we match!"

Raphtalia chuckled awkwardly.

The mask managed to protect from the worst of the toxins and miasma, but due to being a fake somethings got trough, making Raphtalia feel ill, but nothing serious. Just a bit of nausea.

We managed to reach the black dragon, all its glory gone and was reduced to a pitiful state.

"Man… that's not right, at least give it a proper burial" Shirou said as he looked at the corpse with pitty.

One of the strongest Phantasmal Beasts… reduced to a carcass.

It hurt his sensitivities.

"It would have been better if Ren had used even the bones." Shirou said.

*bump bump *

Something was wrong.

"No… nononono" Shirou said.

Firo looked at the dead dragon and asked for permission to eat it.

Magic was circulating on the body.

"Get down!" Shirou yelled.

Fafnir grabbed Naofumi from the nape of his shirt while Shirou tackled Raphtalia down. Firo managed to dodge out of the way. A powerful imprint was on the floor that stretched 2 yards, the tail had just slammed itself on the ground, if they took that, they would be nothing but a smear on the floor.

The draconian corpse began to move once more, reanimated by necromantic magic fueled by its hatred.

"how… how could such an insect kill me? HOW COULD I ACCEPT SUCH AND END!?" was the rage that could be seen in its undead eyes.

His rage and wrath had made him come back into a semblance of life, a zombie black dragon.

In its rage it had launched an attack with its tail and made a huge indentation on the ground of the mountain.

Naofumi's shield had a LOT of poison resistance going on, but even with it, and his rather impressive physical resistance, that would have done more than some nasty damage.

Worst of all, Shirou was running low on prana… due to the use and tracing of the bow and Caladbulg II, the staff of Asklepious and 3 copies of the masks of him…. well, it put him in a tight spot.

So he had to improvise.

During his stint as a freelance mercenary he had meet Ciel, who taught him how to use the black keys as well as a martial arts from within the church and use it alongside the baptism rite to destroy and or damage undead/unholy creatures.

Using the power of 'faith' he delivered a blow to the zombie dragon, it was somewhat effective, it's size made it resistant to physical damage but due to his attacks having holy nature, it compounded and made it effective.

Naofumi took turns baiting it and receiving some hits with his shield and countering with the dog face shield.

It was hard… and then… it happened.

**P.O.V Naofumi **

The rotting meat turned into liquid and flowed over the body, only to reform itself into wings and a tail. The same process was happening to its internal organs. I looked, and the fatal wound on its belly had already closed. How were we supposed to fight this thing?

"We're running!" I said immediately, it would do us no good to stay and fight as we are.

"But Firo has…!"

Raphtalia was frantically thrusting her finger in the direction of the Zombie Dragon.

I'd forgotten! Firolials and dragons never got along! Fafnir being the sole exception.

"Hiyaaa!"

Raphtalia had dashed for the dragon and run up its neck to deliver a solid kick to the head.

There was a loud and satisfying bash, and then the dragon began to bend over backwards.

"Can we… win?"

Firo was a strong attacker, and this Zombie Dragon didn't have any claws or fangs yet.

Maybe we could win. I found it hard to believe that this undead dragon could hold out for very long.

And if we were to run from the beast now, there was a chance it might go on to attack the village.

Just like when Ren beat the dragon, the dragon would revive and make this place his territory again. But he was still regenerating, so this was our chance. If we didn't beat it now, the next adventurers wouldn't stand a chance.

"Don't be a fool! Back down!"

"I don't wanna!" Firo said as she keep attacking with lightning fast kicks as Shirou attacked as well from bellow.

"Dammit! All right, let's take care of it!"

"Okay!"

Things were fine for a moment. I switched to the Chimera Viper Shield for its defense, and with that and my defense rating, I was able to stave off the dragon's attacks.

But then…

"**Gaooooooooooooh**!"

Something in the belly swelled and moved up the throat. Then the beast opened its mouth and breathed a heavy purple gas in our direction.

Raphtalia and Firo did as we had agreed and rushed to hide behind my shield.

I held up the shield to block off the billowing gas, but…

"Wh…What is this?!"

"Cough! Cough!"

The breath was a thick and noxious poison.

I had Poison Resistance, and even I found my head reeling and my breath coming in ragged gasps.

Raphtalia began coughing behind me as she was wearing the plague doctor mask she was mkre protected, but it seems a bit passed trough, it couldn't be helped, if it was the real thing nothing could, but hearing her cough like so was better than hearing her do it violently.

Firo was undeterred by the gas, or maybe she had been holding her breath. Regardless, she rushed forward and kicked hard at the dragon's soft underside.

"R…Raphtalia! Are you okay?"

"Cough Cough Cough!"

She was trying, through her tears, to say that she was all right. This wasn't good.

Firo and I could fight, but Raphtalia was somewhat incapacitated. While resisting the worst of it, being unable to properly breath would be detrimental.

"Raphtalia, get out of here. Head back to the carriage—there's antidote in there. Take it and rest."

"Cough!"

Raphtalia fell into another coughing fit, but she desperately pointed at the dragon through the ragged coughs.

I followed her gaze and was dumbfounded.

The dragon had opened its wings and risen into the air, only to swoop down and scoop Firo up into its mouth.

The whole scene seemed to move in slow motion.

I threw out my hand, but…

"Ah…"

Crunch!

There was a deafening sound, and a wave of red liquid streamed from the dragon's mouth.

My eyes dilated, unable to accept the reality in front of me.

"Firooooooooo!"

It was either Raphtalia me or Shirou that screamed, I don't remember. Everything was a slow confusing blur, and I couldn't be sure who was doing what.

That selfish, childish little bird had only been alive for a month, but she'd wanted to be with me the whole time, she wanted me to spoil her. She didn't want me to think her useless. She was just a little kid.

Like a revolving light show, my memories of Firo came flashing back to me.

Shirou rushed in, each blow from his glowing fists had the power of a warhammer, violently hitting at the black zombie dragon.

He was yelling in anger and pain, I couldn't blame him, Firo looked like his sister after all.

Firo and Shirou actually gotten along quite nicely, she had her reservations about Fafnir but she also accepted him and wanted to sleep with Shirou as well, Shirou dotted on her quite a bit.

"_She reminds me of my sister_"

His fists were a flurry of blows… until he got exhausted, it seems that recreating things that are not considered weapons were rather taxing on him, and the staff he had traced had Divine power so that also did not help his reserves.

Even Fafnir had viciously attacked the Zombie dragon with its claws and bite and tail. It held rage and murder in its eyes.

Once Fafnir noticed Shirou being tired he quickly snatched him away and avoided a new tail lashing.

What had happened?

What had…

The dragon chewed heavily on its catch, and then…

Gulp.

With a loud sound, it swallowed.

"No! Firo!"

My voice came wheezing from my mouth, and I stood still—shocked. It hurt. It hurt like I'd been kicked off a cliff. I feel like I finally understood what it meant to feel devastated, to feel hopeless.

It wasn't devastation that spurs you to action, or to revenge. It was deeper and sadder. It was the devastation that the clock couldn't be turned back.

"Naofumi-sama!"

Raphtalia turned to me and slapped me hard across the face.

"Get a hold of yourself! This isn't the time to be distracted!"

Her eyes were filled with tears.

She was yelling at me. She was saying that things would only get worse if we didn't do something.

But I couldn't hear her. I was overcome with anger… anger at losing my close friend right before my eyes.

**Ỳ̨̕ơ̶̶͝u̢ ̵̀͘͞w̷͘͡a͝n̵͘͟t̷̨̧̡ ҉̷̸̨p̷o̧͢wé̷͠r̵?̴̕͞͝**

I could hear a voice speaking to me from my shield.

My eyes wandered down to look at the shield. I could hear the voice again.

**D̶͡ó͞ ͡͞y̶͡͝o҉͏̢҉ú̴̸͞ ̴̴͝h̛͝at̀́e̷͜͏͞ ̕͝e̡̢͟v̀͟͜͞e̴̕͝ry͝͏͝t̷h̵͜į̕͡ń̢͡g?̕**

**̶̢͘͠͝**

I felt my heart pound.

I could feel darkness expanding from the depths of the shield.

This had happened before, back when I had dueled with Motoyasu.

The shield's tree suddenly appeared before my eyes.

The screen turned around, and the reverse was some color, almost red, almost black—with another tree on it.

C̵̡u͏̸̨́͠rś̵̴́͟e̵ ̷̴̨͢S̵̀͟͠e͏͟҉̧̕ri̷̴̡͞҉é͟s҉̴̛͝.̶

The phrase ran through my mind quickly. There was one shield listed on the tree that was shining.

C͝ú̕ŗ͘͡s̴ę͢͜ ̀S̷ę̡͞r̷͢ì̶ȩ̴͢s̴͠:͠͡

͟S̀͠͝h̶̨͢i̕e͏ļ͞d̨͟ ͜o̷͠f͟͠ ̀̕͜Ra̶ge̸͟: a͡b͢͡i̷̛l̛it̸̛͠y l̛͜͡ơ̕͠c͏̵͢k̴̡ed:͘

̷̸e͞q̨ưi̢̧͡p b̡͟҉o̴̕͢ņ̴́u͏͘͘s̸̕:̢̨ ̢͟͞ski҉l͠l ̡̧͜"̕͢͏C̢h̡̢̕a̴̴̢n̶̨͢ge ̷̢͢Ś̶̵hiél̸͠d͡͏̶ ͜͏(̨͜ątt̛͘͜a҉̕̕c̡k̸̛͠)̴͜͝,̷̛"̶͝͠ ̸͡"̷͞͝I̸̛͝r͝on̢ ̸͏̢M̵ai̴͏d̶͜͠e̕͠҉n͜"̷̕

͟ ̛

̀B̷ò̸ŕn ̶͘͜f̨̧r҉҉o͠͏m ̴̵̸t͘͠h̕͟͞ȩ̴͝ ̸͘hè͝͠a̵r̡͟͏t:̸ ̶҉̸S̢͘͡hi̴e̶̸͢l͟d͜ ̀o͏̧f̧̀͠ ̷͜M͜u͟͡rde̷͡͞ŕ̛…̡

This shield came with its own description and instruction. I didn't know if I had willed it, or if it had been involuntary. But I followed my heart and discovered that the shield was already in my hand.

The Shield of Rage.

A great outpouring of emotion came from the shield, and the shield emitted a strong red-black light as it changed form.

The shield was covered in ominous looking flames, and it was blood-red.

**Thump… Thump…**

My whole being was covered in anger, steeped in anger…

The last time, when I won to Motoyasu and they were still threatening to take Raphtalia away from me… when I had only hatred for everything in the world…

Everything in the world had looked black and seemed to be made of shadows… shadows that mocked me and hated me.

"NAOFUMI! Rage without control consumes **EVERYTHING**, temper your rage ... and direct it at the beast!" Shirou yelled.

I was angry and his voice sounded muffled… as if I was underwater.

I was overcome with that single emotion.

"**Gaooooooooooooh**!"

An enormous black shadow turned to me and howled. It was reaching for me….

"Haoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

As if to match the howling of the beast, I let out a scream and accepted its attack with my shield head on.

The ground exploded.

It didn't hurt at all.

"**Gaah?!**"

The black shadow had been laughing at me, mocking me, but now it contorted its mouth in confusion and shock.

Hilarious.

"Die!"

I caught him by the arm and flung him away with all the strength I could muster.

The huge shadow let out a shriek of surprise as it flew through the air

"**Gaoooooh**!"

But instead of realizing that it should think before attack me again, it rose to its feet and came running at me.

I wondered…could I still not attack anyone? Even with this shield?

I couldn't.

The beast turned and made to knock me over with a sweep of its tail.

"That won't work!" I shouted with murder in my eyes.

The tail bounced off with an ineffectual clang. Its attacks wouldn't work on me.

"Useless!"

I had no way to beat the monster.

Or so I thought. Suddenly a large whirlwind of black fire spiraled skyward with me at its center. It set the shadow's tail and arms ablaze.

"**GAOOH**?!"

The shadow fell to the ground in surprise.

"Heh… If the attack is this strong, I wonder if it can counter-attack."

The shadow was backing away from me, suddenly intimidated.

"Ha! Now you beg for your life?! You'll get no mercy from me!" I said with a cruel and malicious smirk.

I shouted the title of my new skill.

"Iron Maiden!"

But the skill did not activate. Rather, the skill tree appeared before my eyes.

Ş͘hi͏̨e͡l̵͟d ̧P͞ri͡s̛̀on͝: ̵Ch͏͡ang̢é͟ ҉͢S҉̷h͜ie͘lḑ͢ (͡a͏̨t͝҉tack̶͜)̡͢:̛͝ Ir͝on͢ M̴͟a҉͝i҉͟d̵e̴̴n͟

What was this? There were conditions on its use?

What a pain. If that was how it was, I'd just let the shadow attack me and try to get a counter-attack to activate.

"Just you wait… I'll kill you for sure!" I said as I slowly walked up to it.

As I approached, the shadow behaved as though it was afraid of my anger, my murderous intention. It flung its arms about wildly.

Its arm connected with the shield and suddenly burst into flames.

The meat burned up, and the bones melted.

The flames weren't strong enough. I wanted to completely eradicate the beast.

"!"

I got it! The Shield of Rage was stronger the more enraged I was. The attack would rise, the crazier I felt.

Well, that was easy for me.

All I needed to do was think about how THEY made me feel.

Myne Sufia… I guess her real name was Malty.

Just thinking of her name filled me with rage.

Next was the Trash… Then Motoyasu, Ren, Itsuki…

I went over all that they had done to me, each and every single memory at a time…

I hated them… I wanted to kill them…

The blood-red shield was reacting to my hatred and turning black.

"This time I'll really kill them… All of them…"

I caught the shadow by the arm and turned all my hatred into glowing coals.

The coals flew out from the shield and completely covered the shadow, swallowing it whole.

Then I felt something, right there on my hand, something warm. My black hatred started to melt away.

**Thump…**

It was… kind…

"Even if the whole world turns against you I won't. I'll say it, time and again Naofumi-sama didn't do it."

What?

At the sound of the voice, the darkened, warped world before me began to waver.

Somewhere in my heart, I knew that giving myself over to anger would result in losing something even more important.

I wanted to ignore it… and yet…

"Please, believe me. I have confidence in Naofumi-sama. He hasn't committed any crime. He gave me medicine and saved my life. He taught me how to fight, how to survive. He is the great Shield Hero. I am your sword. No matter how hard the path, I'll walk it with you."

The voice was whispering to me.

I can't allow myself to be swallowed by hatred. I still had things I needed to protect.

**Yo҉͏u̸͘͘r͢ a̢͡ǹger͝.̢҉.̶̵̕.̵̕͞ i̧͏t ̷́͝w͜é̵͜a̷̷ḱ̷̨en̴̴͜s̷̢̨…**

I can't forget it. But… But I want to give myself over to those who believe in me.

**W҉̶ờ̸͘u҉̧ld̕͞͞ ̛yơ͟u̕҉ ̀͟ŕ̛͡e͟͟͞f̴̢u̡͟sę́͢͢ ̨͘ḿ̴̸͟e͜͡?**

**̶҉**

I don't like orders. I'll choose my own path! Shut the hell up!

**Į̷ '͢͏͝͝m͡҉͏ ą̵͡lw̨҉a̷̷y͘s͜͝ ̕͢͢w͠͞a̧̕҉t̴͘͞͠ch̛ing̀҉͢.̶̧́͟ ̡́̕W̡a̸̶t̷̢͢c̛h̷̵i̶̢n̵g ̢́͏҉f͢͡ǫ̵r yoư̵͟r̶͟͡ ̵͝w͠͡ea̴̡͜͠k̴̸͟n̸̶̢͠e̸͟͢͡ş͘͟s̨͢.̢҉**

The dark voice vanished, and some light returned to the world.

"Cough! Cough!"

I came back to my senses. Raphtalia was next to me, coughing violently, and holding my hand in hers.

"Are you all right?"

"Yes… Yes, I'm ... fine. Cough!"

She'd been burned badly. But there were no enemies here that used fire.

What could it… No!

The special effect of the Shield of Rage, Self Curse, it must have hurt her too!

"Raphtalia! Why were you holding onto my hand?!"

"I thought that you… That you would disappear if I… If I didn't… Cough!"

Raphtalia smiled, then collapsed to the ground.

It was my fault… My fault that Raphtalia was hurt!

"I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!"

"First Heal!"

"I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!"

"First Heal!"

"I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!"

"First Heal!"

"I am in the source of all power. Hear my words and understand them, heal her!"

"First Heal!"

I kept casting the spell until I ran out of magic power.

Raphtalia… Raphtalia was the only person who believed in me int his world. She was important to me!

The burns were bad. My low-level magic wasn't enough to heal them. I ran to the carriage to get the healing ointment.

"**Gaoooooooh**!"

I spun to see the dragon there, howling and swinging his burned arm at me and preparing to unleash its poison breath.

"Out of my way!"

I threw my arm up to catch the Zombie Dragon's attack. When I did, the shield began to shine with a black light and nearly activated the Self Curse Burning skill.

"Stop!"

The shield fell silent at my shout.

Had the flames erupted then and there, they would have killed Raphtalia. That wouldn't be good at all. But with how weak Raphtalia was, I didn't know if she could survive a blast from its poison breath.

As if the shield knew what I was thinking, it activated the Self Curse Burning, but only burned the streaming cloud of poison gas. It wasn't strong enough to actually kill the dragon though.

What to do?

The shield was constantly absorbing my hatred and anger, inflaming them. I was able to keep from being completely swallowed by them only with an enormous effort. How long before I was consumed by it?

But right now, I had to get to the carriage and get medicine for Raphtalia.

My need to protect Raphtalia was just barely strong enough to keep the anger at bay.

"**Gah**?!"

We were trading blows and then, in the middle of the fight, the dragon let out a terrible voice of confusion and pain.

"Wh…What the…"

What was happening? Did this mean that the Self Curse Burning was consuming the dragon?

"**Gaooooooooooh**!"

Finally, the Zombie Dragon stopped moving altogether and returned to its skeletal form.

But this was no time to stand back and reflect on the battle.

The clouds of Poison Flies were nowhere to be seen. The raging dragon must have scared them off.

I held Raphtalia against myself, ran for the carriage, found the healing ointment and quickly applied it to her burns. Then I gave her the antidote.

"Oh… Naofumi-sama …"

Her breathing had grown more regular, and she opened her eyes and smiled.

"Are you all right?!"

"Yes… Thanks to your medicine…"

And yet her wounds still looked pretty bad. The wounds themselves seemed to have shrunk and healed over from the medicine, but there were black scars remaining, maybe because of the black magic the shield had used. Anyway, the burns still didn't look very good.

"Don't… worry about me… take care of the dragon."

"I'll do it." Shirou said as he consumed a MP potion.

"You may not be the dragon he had once fought, but a dragon you are so it will still be all the same" Shirou said as a new sword formed in his hands.

The sword of the Germanic hero… sung in the Völsunga Sagas.

"All will be separated in shadow and light"

His sword took the cursed miasma from my shield and turned dark.

"The world will now reach the twilight"

I had never seen the sword, but an image superimposed itself on Shirou, a man with woven steel armor and long white hair.

"Balmung!"

A beam of dark light shot out of his blade, directed at the zombie black dragon.

It was then when he noticed something… he cleaved the dragon vertically and burned the wound so it wouldn't regenerate...

The body laid finally dead.

I needed to butcher it and get the shield to absorb it all.

And Firo… At the very least I wanted to recover her body and give her a proper burial.

I approached the corpse and could see that the internal organs were still twitching and squirming.

What was going on? There might be a way for me to fight it.

The Shield of Rage.

This dangerous shield that threatened to consume my heart also happened to have a fantastic defense rating and a strong counter attack.

My heart couldn't take it, so I had switched my shield back to the Chimera Viper Shield. But I was ready to switch back at any time… if I needed to.

The wriggling internals moved, then stopped, then they shook with such force I thought the stomach would tear… then… then I could see…

"Huff!"

"It was… a bird that I knew on its side. She was covered in the rotted liquid of the dead dragon.

"Huff! I finally made it out!"

Firo seemed to be in a good mood, and just fine, despite climbing from the stomach of the beast that had eaten her.

"Firo?! Are you all right? Are you hurt?!"

"I'm fine!"

"Then… Then what was all that blood when the dragon ate you?"

"Blood? Oh, yeah, when the dragon swallowed me it pushed on my tummy, and I threw up."

What had she been eating? Oh yeah, all those tomatoes! That must have looked like blood.

That's right… She'd been stuffing her face with them for hours.

"Don't scare me like that! I thought you were dead!"

Myself, Shirou and Raphtalia came and hugged her tightly.

Man… She'd really given me a scare.

"Master, were you worried about me?"

"Whatever."

"Master! You're embarrassed!"

"Want me to give the eulogy at your funeral?" I said with a fake anger in my voice.

"No! But I'm happy! Don't you start thinking about buying a replacement for me!"

Right… Well, she was okay.

Firo stood there smiling, which annoyed me. She better remember all this.

"Anyway, what happened?" Shirou asked.

"Well, the dragon swallowed me, and then when I was in his tummy I walked around and found this weird, glowing purple crystal."

Could it be that the dead dragon was reanimated by this purple crystal?

Firo had ripped her way out of the corpse. In its chest… Could it have been the heart?

But why?

Because it was a dragon? Even though it was dead, could it be that the dragon's latent magical power had gathered in the heart and crystallized?

"So what was with the crystal?"

"Ugh! Blech!"

I guess that was the answer… she'd eaten it. Her stomach looked like it was glowing too.

Geez… I could have hit her.

"There was a little leftover. Does Master want a snack?"

She held out her little wing, and there was a purple crystal shard there in her hand.

What the hell?

I broke it in half and let the shield absorb it.

I knew it… My tree wasn't advanced enough to unlock anything.

"Raphtalia is hurt, so you, Shirou and I are going to clean up this dragon."

"Okay!"

I swear… This bird was going to put me in the madhouse.

Good thing I didn't let myself get consumed by anger.

I'd switched to the Curse Shield to avenge Firo, but I'd almost been completely consumed by hatred.

If Raphtalia hadn't stopped me, I would have burned the dragon completely… and burned Firo too.

Rage… That shield was cursed.

It took me over to accomplish its own ends.

Had I let it take me over, I would have gone on to kill the other heroes when I finished with the dragon.

"Yummy!"

"Firo! That meat is rotten, don't eat it!"

"Meat that's just starting to rot is the best kind, Master!"

"It's not 'just starting,' it's completely rotten!"

We kept on cleaning in our half-hearted, playful way. Soon enough, the dragon was gone.

I'd absorbed everything I could, but the tree wasn't advanced enough to unlock anything.

Even still, the bones and skin seemed like they would be useful materials, so I took a portion of them and loaded up the carriage.

Fafnir hugged Firo who was confussed until she understood how it looked for us who were on the outside.

Raphtalia was, after we cleaned up after the sword hero, taken to a cabin were she was told her but were cursed.

Shirou could undo it, but it carries the risk of also undoing the slave seal.

I asked him to do it but Raphtalia refused.

I felt like shit.

I had hurt her.

My nails dug into my arms.

That shield, was powerful, truly so… but…

Not only did it hurt me… it could hurt those I care about…

She was a young woman, she did not deserve to have those marks.

She should have been out in a nice house with a man she loves raising her kids and being happy.

Same with Firo… from what she told me she said she was supposed to be just a regular Firolial egg… so she was cheap and to be raised for her meat.

I did not know what was up or down at the moment.

Thankfully they offered some holy water to soak her bandages to alleviate her cursed wounds.

I put my arms around her and apologised.

I was weak.

My heart was weak due to my rage, my anger blinded me and lashed out to her with my shield.

Her cursed burns was my fault.

We would need to buy strong holy water made by the church, and considering the name of the church…

The church of the 3 heroes.

There was a high chance they would extort a ridiculous high price for it.

I curled my fist in rage.

I took a deep breath.

"Naofumi-san, I need to speak with you" Shirou said.

I nodded and excused myself.

Once they were outside, Shirou delivered a powerful blow to my head.

It stung bad!

"You let your anger get the best of you, I get it, a lot of shit has happened to us, but you have to control it, rage is good… but if you don't control it… well you can see it yourself can you?" Shirou said.

I sat in seiza, I was accepting his lecture, as much as I hated it he was right, so my anger was solely to myself.

"Still, Raphtalia managed to snap you out if it, otherwise I would had have to kill you" Shirou said.

I looked at him, he was not kidding.

Firo walked by as Shirou patted her big feathery head as he continued to lecture me.

"I did not say anything when you first gotten that Shield because you seemed to had yourself collected, but it seems this was just as much my mistake. It is rather fortunate that Svalinn managed to cool your head a bit, but most of it was due to Raphtalia, you better show her the gratitude she deserves."

I nodded as he was right.

"Also… I know this is sudden but I have to split from the party, at least for a while, you and the girls are strong enough that you don't need me, so I am more concerned about those 3… if we extrapolate their "heroic deeds" there is 100% chance that the bow hero is gonna do a HUGE screw up, and it will be even worst due to his rather young age, I gotten wind of where he is heading so I am going to beat him there and solve the problem in the area, I hope you don't mind" Shirou said.

"Is it because of what I did?" I asked

"No" Shirou shook his head "I would be a hypocrite if I did, the thing is… you are strong now, you as well as the girls need to rank up, your levels have maxed out and need to rank up so you can continue to level up" Shirou said.

"Rank up?" I asked.

"yes, at level 50 you can't level up anymore until you rank up, I recommend you go to another country that is not under the influence of this one and ask for it, there is a service fee but it should be fine… I am leaving you with over 80% of the funds after all" Shirou said.

I blinked, we had over 500 gold in total… so he was taking about 100 gold coins? maybe less?

"This is good bye for now…. no… not good bye, but an untill later." Shirou said as he hugged me.

I felt so weak…

Firo came over and gave a hug of her own on her human form.

"Firo, I want you to behave alright? protect Naofumi-san and Raphtalia-san ok?" Shirou said as he gently patted her head much to her delight.

"Will do Shirou-oniisan!"

He smiled "good girl"

Shirou then walked into the place Raphtalia was resting.

**P.O.V Shirou**

I went to her room and asked if she was decent, once that was cleared I entered.

"Shirou-sama? is something wrong?" she asked.

"No, it just wouldn't be fair to not tell you, I will be splitting up for a bit… since you are all strong enough you don't need me anymore and I need to be other places" I explained.

"I see, is this because of the other heroes mistakes?" she asked.

I nodded.

"It seems the other 3 are rather useless, making things worst for all, yet we are the ones fixing their messes up… and yet Naofumi-sama gets no reward and is vilified further… you and him get all the blame… it's not fair" she said.

"You are right… it's not, however there is nothing that can be done, all we can do is move forward one foot at a time"

"I am going to miss you a lot Shirou-sama" she said as she hugged him tight, she winced at her own painful wounds.

Shirou gently placed her back on her bed

"I am sorry, if I was a better magus I could heal you" Shirou said.

Raphtalia smiled kindly. "Don't say that Shirou-sama, you and Naofumi-sama raised me, how can you not be anything but the best?" she said with a pained smile.

I traced a set of knives and gave it to her, "Take these, in case you ever fight a strong female opponent that you must kill no matter what, use it and call their names… Maria the ripper the Holy mother of dismembering, it is special in that once it's name is included, a curse will occur on the opponent if it's female, 4 knives will materialise inside their body and fly out, generating internal damage, regardless of defence"

She gulped as she received the knives.

She looked at them, I could probably guess who she thought of in case she had to use them if she had to.

"Until we see again Raphtalia, stay as his sword, he will need all the love he can get so he can overcome it… the sin of wrath" I said as I left.

I mounted on Fafnir as I headed towards the town that the bow hero would be. It would take a while so I loaded up for 6 days worth of rations for myself and for Fafnir.

Fafnir said his goodbyes to Firo and we left.

Fafnir made a sad sound as we left.

"Don't worry… we will see them again, we never left his party… we just split up, so when the waves comes… we will be right there at his side" I said as I gently patted Fafnir.

And so, we took off into the sunset, to try and right wrongs and make this a better place.

But not only that…

"I have to find out about that… the Vassal Weapons and how they relate to the holy weapons"

Naofumi: LV 50

Raphtalia: LV 50

Firo: LV 45

Fafnir: LV 45

Shirou: LV &$#€£¥

Chapter end

That's right… I am breaking from cannon from here on out, I wanted to get to this particular place before going any further, prepare for a lot of action next time.


	9. Chapter 9

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Author Notes: redid some of the earlier chapters… also changed this one a bit.

Chapter 9: Corruption and Lies

It has been nearly a week since he parted ways with Naofumi and the party as he approached a new place on his own, along with his riding dragon named Fafnir.

Since that day he had begun to exhibit some changes.

His scales became a deep shade of red, so deep as to be crimson.

His speed increased and well as strength.

However there was a problem with him.

You see.

He was dying.

It was an illness he had due to a birth defect… he was supposed to die in 8 years… that was 3 years ago.

Shirou did not know, and he would be damned if he told him.

He was a regular riding dragon.

He was ecstatic when he heard he was to be the Spear Hero's mount.

His life would have some meaning, he wouldn't die a pathetic death, waiting for death's embrace.

Then the race happened.

His heart was crushed, he was unceremoniously kicked out, how would anyone have thought that the Filolial he raced against would be so swift that even glass broke in the wake of her mad dash?

But then he came, his new master.

Emiya Shirou.

He saved him, he who was once his enemy.

There was a scent in him of an old lord.

The red dragon of lore, Ddraig.

Shirou talked about a female companion of his, the one who helped him become the competent fighter he is today.

Her name was Saber.

The name, while not familiar, resonated within.

Dragons can recognize dragons, as their power lingers.

Fafnir vowed to his blood that he would make Shirou be able to go back to his world, but as he is now, he would unfailingly deliver him to his destination without fail.

It was 3 days later when they reached the new land, Fafnir could tell his master's pain at seeing this town.

The town, it was dying.

He managed to stop a band of raiders that wanted to attack the farms nearby, but he put them down without hesitation.

Those men had eyes of pleasure, they did not do this for necessity, no, they did so for pleasure.

The farm family cried due to them being saved, just a week ago, they had lost their youngest to the raiders.

They welcomed me and master, gave me a place on their barn and gave me whatever food they could to repay my master saving them.

My master… my foolish but kind master.

He truly is someone who deserves the title of hero.

**P.O.V Shirou**

I woke up the next day, it seems the farmers also woke up just minutes after me, they feed me and Fafnir and gave us farewells as they send us off with praise and thanks.

As to not repeat what happened last time, I decided to create a bounded field, Shishio had taught me well enough and made several runic engravings on the rocks I could find, then reinforced them. Anyone with bad intentions towards the family will suddenly 'remember' an urgent 'thing' they had to get done.

It would be self sustaining as it used the Mana of the world to generate the effect, it did take me some time to engrave all the many runes it needed.

As I came into the town proper I saw the largest structure, it was a barn house, according to the farmer family the ones who take care of this place was a family of nobles who were not particularly rich, but they had a strong sense of justice and fairness, due to that another noble had plans to invade his territory and thus decided to increase military expenditure to protect his people.

The noble was a good man.

Once he reached there, he saw a young girl, mid to late teens with beautiful green hair.

She was startled at my appearance, but I removed my hood and gave her a reassuring smile as I asked to speak with the noble in charge.

That noble, apparently was her father.

He told me he was expecting someone who took the bounty to arrive next week.

I told him that I would help him, and that he could cancel the bounty, as I would do it for free.

The man was shocked.

We were given a room to rest as my job would be best done at night.

When darkness fell I reinforced my eyes to better see in darkness and furthering increasing my visual range. At the horizon I could make out the light of torches.

There was quite a lot of them.

Once they arrived they found a line of swords blade first on the ground with myself and Fafnir.

They looked at me.

"I do not like killing people, so I urge you… if you do not desire to die go away, once you cross this umbral of blades you have given up the right for mercy."

I said this to dissuade them.

They laughed, "are you daft boyo? We are over 80 strong and you be but a single person and a knight dragon, what can you two do against us who are level 40 and 30s?"

They all readied their weapons, all of them licking their blades and crazed eyes filled with murder.

The leader took one step over the line

"So? Now What?" He said with a smirk.

I sighed.

"Come on boys… get this fool!" He yelled.

No one stepped up.

He turned to see his minions. Their faces had abject horror on them, one of them pointed to the sky.

He turned to see the improbable vista in front of him.

Thousands of swords, hanging in the air all aimed at him.

"Well… that ain't fair at all" the raider boss said.

I snapped my fingers.

A sound akin to a waterfall was heard as all the traced blades shot out into the body of the raider leader until not a single ounce of flesh could be seen.

The raiders eyes widened in abject horror as I raised my hand.

That was not how a human died.

The blades on the ground vanished only to reaper once more in the sky.

I brought my hand down, like an executioner when doing the chopping of the one sentenced to death.

They screamed and cursed me, a few managed to parry some, but it was an effort in futility, as what rained down on them was **unlimited**.

I found a letter on the raiders caravan once I found it, this attack was to drive the final nail and make the nobles of this land submit and give his daughter to him.

Unfortunately for his daughter, Rishia, he had sent her to that beast the day he came, as he was worried for his lands and hopped, erroneously, that she would be well taken care of.

I left to find the dark noble that orchestrated this.

It took a few days… but once I had found out what this Noble has done, it made my blood boil.

He would ruin good noble families and drag them to the ground, destroying their lands, then play as a hero but ask for their daughter in return… he would then break them, use them and dispose of them and then do the same to the wife after killing the father when he was shown what he had done and reveal his true face to them.

He was a creature who feasted on the destruction of the psyche and delighted himself when they found out what had happened. To see their faces twisted in misery and hopelessness.

It was it's "hobby" one he took great pleasure in.

However, killing him would do no one any good, no… I had other plans.

This is one of the very few times I was glad I had Alter Emiya's memories.

I bought a blank scroll and a topaz as well as some rubies and crushed them into the ink, I poured my mana into it and then added shaving of lead and of chalk as well as drops of my blood.

I bought a parchment and then began to write.

It was a geass scroll. But a special one.

The words and message was all fake, the real contract was written with prana into the ink, the scroll read as following:

"To the steamed Noble of this land, we cannot express our gratitude for the soldiers you have landed in my lands, as a show of gratitude I am sending a young lad with a scroll that requires your signature and seal to verify that you have indeed received the item I send, a large pure diamond. It has been an heirloom of my family and wish to give it to yous, it's purity is something never seen before and thought it would be a good gift for your help in these dire times"

And so on and so on.

Once he reached the lands of this creature he got into his residence, he patted his ego and bolstered it. These kinds of beings loved when their ego was stroked. And so he traced the diamond, it was quite hard to do but managed to do so. It was taken away by the sheer brilliance of an uncorrupted diamond, something pure… so virginal….

Just like the things he so enjoyed to corrupt and destroy.

He then pulled the geass scroll and gave it to It.

After reading he asked for his quill and wax to be brought.

He then mixed his blood with the ink and signed and sealed it with his own wax seal.

The contract was signed.

'It' felt like something was wrong. Something felt like it has grasped it's heart.

I left my room, one that was arranged for me to take a nap.

I rested till the moon was high.

I heard a muffled cry… my magically enhanced senses heard it… it was that girl I meet.

I rushed to the sound of screams.

I kicked down the door with the noble having ripped Rishia's clothes.

She had tears in her eyes, her body covered in bruises and her panties nearly thorn.

"W-WHAT THE HELL YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING HERE… GUARDS K-!" he stopped… he felt the hand back right on his heart.

"I see, you are indeed quite a fool of a lord," I said as I walked to Rishia and sealed my cape over her.

"W-what did you say… Guards k-" he said but stepped as he felt his heart being squeezed more..

"I wouldn't do that if I were you… what you have signed is a geass scroll, is kinda like a slave seal in a way, but much less forgiving and not something that can be removed unless the other party accepts" I explained.

I opened the scroll and the ink shifted to the real message.

"Parties affected:

Party 1: Emiya Shirou

Party 2: Lord of the lands

Contract: should party 2 try to attack party 1 or any person that party 2 has had wronged in the past, a curse will destroy his heart, he nor his attendants or any person that discovered this shall not attempt to try to remove this geass or it shall result in the death of party 2, any hostile action will be considered a breach of this contract and thus the elimination of party 2.

Party 2 also is subjected to repay any and all past and future damage done by his actions and those under his employment.

Party 1 obligations are the hiding of all the proof that he had collected as well as all evidence, this becomes null if party 2 decides to breach and break the contract"

The lord was livid, but he had seen that it was real… there was a metaphorical hand at his heart.

This guy… he got him by the balls.

He had so much fury but he could not do anything, not even give the order to kill him.

"If you excuse me… I will free the victims from your dungeons… by your leave" I said as I left to find all the surviving victims.

I found the victims on his dungeon, hidden with illusion magic, they had not taken into account the ability to smell magecraft of any kind.

Using Rule Breaker I dissipated the illusion and the many traps that lay in wait.

The monster of a lord delighted himself in dangling hope in front of his victims, just to crush it as they were so ever closer.

The looks of despair on his victims was much better than an orgasm.

Many of his victims had slave curses and thus he methodically began to destroy the curses on them, he then feed and gave water to the many victims who had no idea what was going on… they thought it was just another play of that monster.

All the people down here were chained to the wall… many of them young girls with dead eyes.

By using structural analysis I found out the horrors they had experienced.

It was a different hell than I experienced.

Mine was a hell of fire.

This, was one of **evil**.

There were about 10 girls who were methodically and systematically violated since age 9. A lot of them had vaginal scaring as well as anal tearing, many of them would be no longer able to bear children as they got too damaged due

to the dark noble's hobbies.

It happened the same to even young boys, and not only humans, but also demi-humans as well.

Not far away was the body of a young woman covered in blood and some other kinds of bodily fluids of the male persuasion, the woman laid dead on the floor, her face contorted in agony and despair. Not far from her was a body of a man who died as he screamed, his wrists looked heavily damaged from pulling at his restraints.

It was sickening… he saw many of them that had a lot of bruises and wounds from being slammed or hit with fists or slammed against the tables and the like.

Many of the ones still living just looked like how I must have looked before Kiritsugu saved me.

Empty. Ready to accept death.

They looked at him and looked without interest, all having broken spirits.

All of them thinking this is but a new cruelty of the monster that captured them all and tortured them until they became shallow shells of themselves.

"No, this is indeed real, you are all saved" I said as I broke their chains.

I then began to ask where each one of them was from on if they had any family to contact. Once all these things were done I asked Fafnir to do "what we talked about before"

The contract specified that I and I alone was to keep his dirty secrets.

With that loop-hole Fafnir placed any and all incriminatory evidence on the bags of supplies he gave each victim.

The 'lord' had a face so red that it bordered on prune. His veins popped up as he was trying to calm himself.

Even his soldiers were hesitant, a fair few wanted to attack me on purpose so that monster could kick the bucket already.

They took quite a loot from his own coffers and gave each one 30 to 60 gold coins, all of them cried tears. This was so much for them, they had never seen so much money on their lives.

"It is the least I could do… had I known sooner," I said.

"There is nothing to be done, we are just happy to be still alive, thank you so much, a little girl said as she broke down and cried.

One could only imagine the horrors she had witnessed, the ones she had experienced.

He hugged the young girl as she cried… her nightmare… **their **nightmare had finally ended.

He took a large carriage and reinforced Fafnir and the carriage and put the survivors in, he would go back to the land of Rishia's father, the survivors would find the evidence and the problem would solve itself, no matter how corrupt this world was, they wouldn't be able to sweep this under the rug. Especially when the daughter of a (albeit poor) noble, was one of the many victims to testify.

The way back was rather eventful, at the distance I managed to see a Filolial of colloidal size with deep blue feather deep red eyes and 3 cowlicks.

It was heading elsewhere so I ignored it.

I nearly confused it with Firo to be honest, but that thing was way too big.

It took one look at me and looked at me oddly. Like it wasn't sure what I was, it looked at me quizzically. It then shook its head and then it left.

It was rather odd… was I being seized up by it?

We managed to get back to town and the survivors got welcomed back.

The town was happy knowing those who were taken had come back… but it wasn't over yet. This was but phase 1, what came after would deal a blow that the monster could not take.

Rishia's father was shocked to see his daughter back, she told him what had transpired.

It was 3 days after, the surviving victims had been rather tired and were on the mend, quite a few rummaged through the sacks of items I given them, inside many of the victims found letters and journals of the monster itself and contained detailed plans on how it had happened and how he planned it all.

It also described,with visceral detail, what he did to all the victims.

It also was a ledger of the people he hired to act as raiders and then as guards while kidnapping the kids of the people to further increase dissension on the land.

When Rishia's father learned of this he was livid, he collected the evidence, had it magically copied and send to the King in Melomarc.

Once the accusations got sent the King at first tried to sweep it under the rug, but due to the sheer heinous acts he has done and the fact that there was a mountain of solid evidence, survivors and witnesses, not even the church of the 3 heroes wanted to touch it, even if he was politically allied with them.

He was promptly arrested and sentenced to beheading on the public square, many of his victims came to see their tormentors get his comeuppance.

The beast yelled that he had done no wrong… that they were their property and thus he could do as he willed. He was a noble so what he had done was not wrong.

The king shook his head,this man was a useful pawn, as he gave a hefty amount of revenue to the kingdom, but even now he fought though and nail when he knew he had lost, he kicked and screamed as he was sent to be beheaded, the executioner placed him into the guillotine.

"YOU ARE A NOBLE! AT LEAST ACT LIKE ONE AND FACE DEATH WITH DIGNITY!" The king yelled.

The monster cried and yelled as the blade fell down.

**Schook**

The head was cleanly separated from his body, it bounced from the wicker basket and rolled into the plaza propper unceremoniously. The look of rage and fear etched into its face, his victims rejoiced and cried tears of liberation, the tyrannical lord has been done with.

The king was furious, however, a large contributor to him and the church of the 3 heroes has been done in, he was quite certain who had done it, but had no proof, as the pathetic lard of an arse refused to say the name of the person who had done him in.

The church was not happy with this either, they send some shadows to monitor the heroes, however of all of them only the Shield was the one who was actually heroic (to say it loosely) according to the information gathering, even if his mannerisms left a lot to be desired.

How dare that scum mislead their sheep?

The shield was an evil to be destroyed.

A demon, foul and dirty.

But it wasn't that which irritated him, it was that anomaly, the fifth summoned person.

He was someone that even the 3 heroes together could not beat when united, what could he have taught the demon shield?

According to information he was now at level 50, the king, along the holy church of the 3 heroes had placed a ban on him as well as any and all followers of his to rank up.

This was a stopgap measure, but his followers would not be able to grow stronger past level 40, as such he would be hard pressed fighting stronger monsters, they would surely try to go to a neighboring country, but he had ordered to stop him at all costs, that way he would be trapped.

However, little did anyone know that Shirou actually helped them not only level up faster when training, but when they did train, their stats had 1.5 multiplier at leveling so, compounded with the status growth from the slaver and beastmaster/monster tamer shield each level they gain their stats would equal to 9 levels for the girls.

So even if they were at level 40… their stats should be many times over the norm of anyone at that level.

Making them into the theoretical level of 60-ish, more or less.

The king asked for the church of the 3 heroes to train the others more aggressively as to not be outdone by the demon, however the 3 of them were difficult to corral… they did as they wanted and they caused more problems than what they solved, having the Shield demon clean up after them. The only one who actually did something was the Sword Hero, however he was a loner by nature and thus his party was severely weakened due to them not fighting alongside the Sword Hero, in order to gain the extra EXP.

This would not do at all.

**Back with Shirou**

Raishia was unable to believe what transpired, this gentleman had in less than 48 hrs saved not only her but many victims of that villainous noble.

They also found that her father was to be assassinated as well...

"Father… I wish to travel along with him" Rishia asked her father.

He looked at me, I would accept what comes next.

**Rishia's father P.O.V**

"_This is rather troublesome for me as a father… this young man not only did what he said he would and for free but disarticulated a rather prominent evil noble and saved my daughter and our kinsmen from his crutches… my daughter it seems enamoured by him, should I allow her to go with him? If I go by my desires as a father I would not… but if I go with a cool head and think logically, my daughter would be in great danger, friends of that noble will desire revenge, she would be a much harder target to get if she was mobile, not to mention…" _I looked at the young man who had done such deeds in such a short amount of time,_ "he must be rather powerful or skilled, probably both"_

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and looked at the young man "Can you protect her, my daughter?"

"I will strive to make sure she grows strong enough as to not need me" he said.

I chuckled, that response was so hero like, could he be one of the legendary heroes?

"Could it be… that you are the legendary sword hero?" I asked.

The young man shook his head, "no… I am not the sword hero."

I pondered a while longer, I will provide with a carriage and rations for your travel, 8 weeks worth… and daughter, please take care… since your mother passing… you… I…"

She came to me and wrapped her arms around me as tears trailed down.

"I know father… I don't plan on dying anytime soon" Rishia said.

It took awhile but they took off the next day.

"My daughter, the light of my eyes… please take care" I said as I saw them leave my lands.

It would take a long while for the victims to recover, if they recover at all, the sheer trauma they went through…

However the crown in Melromac has designated mind healers to help the victims, thankfully the healers were of the ortodox faith… the church of the **4** saints, they had come to help.

Hopefully this will help his land as well.

**5 days later**

Shirou, Fafnir and Rishia had a most unusual encounter when traveling.

Shirou, clad in his armor made by Erhard encountered someone who became a rather huge pain in the ass.

It was one of the legendary heroes.

With a sandy blonde hair he and his party members surrounded us.

"The villainous one that took the girl Rishia, surrender or prepare to taste justice!" Itsuki said with sharp eyes.

"Uh?!" All 3 of us said in unison.

**Flashback 4 days ago**

The church of the 3 heroes send a shadow to inform the bow hero's party, in the form of a quest, of a "dastardly villain that had ruined a pure and kind hearted noble and had him sentenced to death by forging false evidence, and thus in the interest of justice should this man be punished"

At least that was the cover story.

They wanted that man dead, how dare he sully the image of the 3 heroes, how dare he train that demon shield and the aberrations that follow him!?

No, this man needed to be dealt with.

"This is all the will of God" the priest said as his glasses shined ominously.

"The will of God" his followers chanted.

They clasped their hands together in prayer.

They provided Itsuki with powerful weapons to copy for him to be able to use against this heathen, many of them being of unique and masterwork class.

Even with the stats difference, the abilities this weapons will provide the bow hero should more than make a marked difference.

"Let us pray for the deliverance of the heathen to salvation"

"Let us pray" they said as they prayed for the damnation of the heathen and the demon shield.

**Shirou P.O.V**

I was confused, I looked at Rishia who looked just as confused as myself.

It seems, from what I could deduce, that perhaps someone close to that **thing** was keeping tabs on him, not only that but they might have taken offense that I had him killed, and with irrefutable evidence as well.

Itsuki ordered his party members to surround the carriage we had, all of them wearing evil smirks.

They knew what was going on.

But the bow hero… he was so diluted in believing that this was a game. Not only that but he fancied himself someone that was a proper hero.

"My justice band will stop your evil ways, you villain." He said as he pulled his bow and aimed at us.

"Shut up" I said as I gritted my teeth.

My eyes saw everything they had done.

His 'justice'.

His bow told me the story.

His weapon was an open book to their shared history.

A fool manipulated into thinking that black was white and white was black.

What's fair is foul and foul is fair.

In his desire to bring justice he never once thought on the consequences of his actions.

People suffered due to his careless actions, he did it all for the desire of validation.

Justice? Don't make me laugh.

Just seeing him made my memories of Emiya Alter surface.

If Emiya was the results of seeing what my path would give me, dying alone and betrayed by my ideals, then Emiya Alter was the perfect actualization of it.

A perfect justice, unfeeling and cold.

It was what needed to be in order to maintain justice.

There is a reason the image of justice wears a blindfold. It is as to not see the atrocities that are necessary to preserve **justice**.

"I said…**Shut up you damn brat**!" I shouted.

The best example of an ideal justice would be Arthuria.

She was wise and fair in her actions, to the point that she could be called cruel.

However she anguished when alone, thinking if there could have been a better way.

This kid just acted like this world was a game.

It was time that this brat learned that this world is real and his actions had consequences.

"YOU DARE RAISE YOUR VOICE TO THE HONOURABLE BOW HERO!? I WILL PUNISH YOUR DISRESPECT!" Said the heavily armored one.

He was sent tumbling back with heavy force.

In my hand was a spear.

The old swaying one.

The spear of the wise god of nordic myth.

Güngir.

With it, I struck on the weakest part of the armor with millimetric precision, with force enough to send the fool flying.

"You villian! You truly are nothing but evil to attack my party member" Itsuki said.

"But… he attacked first?" Rishia said.

Itsuki blinked.

"I see… so he also has you brainwashed as well, you poor thing,I will save you yet" he said with a kind smile.

"Justice This, Justice That, you come and attack us, and expect us not to defend ourselves? Not only that but you have not even a shred of proof that what you were told was true" I said.

"You dare question the integrity of the church of the 3 heroes!?" Another yelled as a few clasped their religious item and prayed.

I nearly vomited.

When I saw the item I saw its history…

Dear God.

Blood. So much blood.

The silver it was made of was quenched in the blood of the demi-humans they had systematically killed and drained.

It was a village worth of blood, women, children, men and the elderly, none were spared.

They did it with a smile.

"You… all of the people in that church… are **sick**" I said.

They readied themselves, one of them cast some buffs for their speed and defense.

I made my own bow appear.

When Itsuki saw it he took a step back.

**Unnamed bow of Archer**

**Rarity: Unique (only one in existence (?) )**

**Abilities: Dexterity +90, Attack +80, Speed+40**

**Sense of sight up (Large)**

**Hawk vision (?)**

**Kinetic vision up (Large)**

**Special trait: capacity to fire $^!& £₩-&€£ $**

Itsuki frowned, this might be hard.

But he was a hero, he was righteous. So that meant he would win.

His party charged in.

I charged as well.

They were taken back as I went into the fray with my bow.

I slammed my bow into the trough of one of them while I lowered my body and swiped my leg growing someone into the floor.

I slammed my foot on their chest plate and had it cave in as it was heavily reinforced, so the adventurer would have a hard time to breath.

Itsuki started using his skills.

His form was downright horrible, by all rights he shouldn't be able to shoot as well as he does.

That meant that the bow was correcting the shot, like an auto aim feature.

I shot his attacks down with professional precision. All his attacks were snuffed out with ease.

He glared at me.

"YOU CHEATER! I AM A HERO… YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO LOOSE!"

He thought that the enemy would allow itself to lose?!

How arrogant, only Gilgamesh had the right to think that way.

I rushed at him as I gave him a death glare.

"Justice? You let an innocent man pay for a crime he did not commit.

You did not even try to find if there was indeed any evidence of what transpired… Don't speak of justice as if you know anything of it!"

"Shut It! My ears are deaf to all villains' lies! Meteor Shot!" Itsuki shouted as he smirked.

The attack was an area of effect, quite similar to Atalante's own Noble Phantasm, albeit watered down as it did not contain the concept of "attacks made with the blessings of the gods"

I reinforced my legs and eyes.

I dodged the arrows that rained down on me, a few merely doing superficial wounds as I continued undeterred.

Yet Itsuki smirked.

"You foolish villain, you fell right into my trap!" He said with complete confidence.

He readied another attack, a single attack that was as swift as the wind.

"HAWK SHOT!" He declared with a triumphant smirk.

So pathetically slow.

For someone like myself who went through the Holy Grail War, having seen Archer's use of Noble Phantasms as projectiles being shot at supersonic speeds to the treasury of Gilgamesh, the attacks from the many servants on the Grand Order, it made me hate this brat.

"Do you even know what a hero is?!" I yelled with fury as the boy in front of me sullied the dream and ideals I strived for.

I grabbed his own attacks in the air and returned it to sender with twice the power.

It hit his right shoulder the arrow lodging himself deep into it.

This must have been the first time he had been wounded in an actual combat, not counting the time I stabbed his hand, not surprising seeing that he was a long range fighter.

"My… MY ARM! IT HURTS!" He yelled as the pain finally caught up to him.

He tried to summon a health potion but I would not allow him.

He needed a lesson.

"A hero… is someone who saves" I said as I kicked him with my reinforced legs.

He gasped as the air was forcibly expelled from his lungs.

"A hero does not look the other way when someone is being accused falsely!"

I walked up to him looking down at him.

"A hero protects and saves, you have done none of those things… you just wanted your pathetic ego to be boosted, and allow yourself to be manipulated, it is so sad if it wasn't so pathethic" I said as I grabbed the arrow from his shoulder.

"W-Wait… what are you-?" Itsuki said as my hand grasped the lodged arrow.

"This is the pain and misery that your thoughtless actions caused to other town, because you did not do your homework, people died due to famine and disease, all because you thought that all that was needed was 'to kill the bad guy', what about the person who would take charge? Would he be better? Worst? In this case it was, over 800 Demi-humans have either died or taken by slave traders because the one in charge was a human extremist" I said, "the guy I beat first? His holy relic was made by quenching the silver it was made of in the blood of a whole village of demi-humans… Where was THEIR justice?"

"Y-you villain, you think you can-"

I twisted his arrow, feeding it with my prana so it would remain solid.

"HYAAAAAA!" He yelled as his eyes were rolling to the back of his head.

"Oh no, you are not going to pass out and escape punishment that easy" I said.

Itsuki glared at him "I… will not stop… I am an ally… an ally of Justice!"

"Then this is gonna be a lesson for you as well… look around you, all you so called party members left you out to dry, if you were indeed justice they would have fought to the bitter end… a hero is not one who is pure and righteous, sometimes more than a hero what is needed is someone who knows the worst of the world, someone who can do dark deeds and stain his own soul with a darkness that casts a shadow over darkness itself to save, they are what they are known as anti-heroes," I said, "You are no hero, you lack any and all qualities to be one, the fact you prance around like an idiot proclaiming yourself an "Ally of Justice"... Sickens me"

He glared with more hatred than possible.

"YOU BASTARD! he yelled as his eyes dilated. Concentrating his fury on me, for I was the antithesis of his belief.

He just pretended to be a hero.

I peeled the mask from his deeds, he wanted to be praised and raised up.

He was no hero.

He knew It, but he would not admit it… COULD NOT.

Dark miasma covered him.

"Kuhuhu…. I see… this all a ploy isn't it? Trying to make me fall off the path of justice… you demon… you thought yourself so clever but I saw through your façade" he said as he kicked me away and put distance between us.

His bow changed forms.

I grimaced.

The bow of pride.

His eyes changed to the color red, his body now had half of it with an angelic look, however the pressure was off, as half of it was also akin of a demon.

"Alleinherrschaft, the cursed bow of pride" I said to myself.

It then shot out countless orbs of light that scattered from Itsuki's body.

The orbs took on lion-like shapes in the sky and rained down endlessly upon the me.

I jumped back as I dematerialised my bow and traced Kanshou and Bakuya and begun to slash at them.

"You can't escape from Justice… you will not stop it" he said with a smile. "I am a hero… the hero of the bow, and by transitive properties I will win, because I am justice" he said with a smile.

One of the attacks went to Rishia so I threw Kanshou at his attack, slicing it in half, the blade harmlessly landed in front of her, the blade sinking deep into the ground.

"For a hero… you sure are very dishonorable" Shirou said with a glare.

"She sided with you, therefore she is evil, there is nothing wrong with what I did"

"I am the bone of my sword" I muttered.

I dashed again towards him.

He dashed back as he shot many arrows at me while the lion orbs flew towards to cage me.

I slashed the orbs down with my blades as I recreated many nameless blades to shoot at his own projectiles.

He then increased the sheer amount of projectiles.

"SWORD BARREL… FULL OPEN!" I shouted as many nameless blades show out to intercept Itsuki's barrage.

He looked at me clinically.

"I see, you must be a bug of the system, you must be eliminated in order to maintain justice and fairness" Itsuki said. "With this new power I shall save this world!" He said.

"Let this foolish sinner pay for his transgressions with him being roasted to death in a brazen bull! Let him writhe in pain as his dying screams are converted into the cries of a raging bull! Bull of Phalaris!" he shouted.

A bull-shaped statue appeared, and its belly opened up and closed around me, trapping inside. Then the belly was engulfed in raging flames.

"Shirou-sama!" Rishia yelled as she believed me dying inside it.

After 30 minutes inside, Itsuki smirked as his attack timed out.

"No… no way" both Itsuki and Rishia said in unison.

Around me was a near transparent crystalline aura, a shield on my left arm.

It was Svalin, the fire of his attack would never match that of the sun.

"This is absolutely unforgivable! I am justice! To think you would cause me this much trouble! You're nothing but the opening act! You've overstepped your boundaries!"

Itsuki's bow took on an even more bizarre form. What had been white wings turned into demonic-looking bat wings."**Die** . . . All who defy me . . . must **die**!"

"For justice! **Die**! This world . . . is defiled by . . . your **evil**!"Itsuki jerked the bowstring backward ridiculously hard and let go. A barrage of arrows went flying toward me.

"RHO AIAS!"

A 7 petal flower sprung up and protected me and Rishia from Itsuki's indiscriminate barrage.

Only 2 petals broke.

He was being consumed by the curse series.

He needed to cut the curse and 'reset' him… but he also had to be careful to not kill him.

But I needed to pin him down.

I projected my blades in the sky and then shot them down.

Spears, swords, rapiers and other blades weapons rained down on Itsuki, he shot down many of them, but my attack was relentless.

They pierced through his defences.

"GAAAAH!" He shouted in agony as many weapons pierced many nonlethal parts of his body, he was pierced and pinned down on the ground.

He raised his head and looked at me with defiance. He was badly wounded and bleeding, but he persisted, trying to push himself up.

"If you can't see the error of your ways then drown in your ideals and die for all I care, maybe this will work as a wake-up call," I said.

_Search start_

I needed a weapon, something that could sever curses.

Rule Breaker came to mind, however it was discarded as it would also break the bond with the legendary bow. It would be ideal, but with my luck it will probably choose me and I can't have that happen.

Gáe Dearg came in… but it was also lethal and would not work in severing the curse. It would interrupt It, but I needed to sever it,otherwise it would take hold instantly.

Then it came a katana… one from my land.

One made by my ancestor's rival.

I smiled, the irony of it all.

Yawarakai-Te, also known as Tender Hands.

I projected it and slashed at him.

"May evil be cut, the vessel be spared, sever the curse and render its vessel safe… Yawarakai-Te!" I shouted activating the Noble Phantasm.

The blade passed his body as it was not there and sliced at the curse eroding his mind.

However just because his body was not harmed did not mean nothing happened.

"GYAAAAH!" He yelled as the curse's power was abruptly cut off from him, leaving him catatonic.

Rishia was taken aback, I… a common person had taken down the legendary hero of the bow.

I grabbed some rope and reinforced it and tied his hands together so he would be unable to use his bow and loaded him to the carriage.

I sighed. "The church of the 3 heroes are not going to be happy about this" I muttered to myself.

**Melromac, Church based by the Dragon Age Clock.**

"This is preposterous!" The head priest said as he saw the battle crushing the Oracle orb into fine dust.

The man had, head over heels, more combat experience that imagined, he had been able to dodge any attacks, and even defended others from them.

He had dictated the flow of battle.

The 3 heroes were USELESS! The people would lose their faith in the church… how could he allow such a thing?

"Make preparations and have **it** ready… I think our plans must advance faster than anticipated" the priest said as his glasses shined ominously.

"Soon… I will have you to heel and produce true heroes for our church…" he said with an evil smirk as he fixed his glasses.

**Chapter end**


	10. Chapter 10

The rise of the Hypocritical Hero and the Shield

A crossover between The Raising of the Shield Hero and Fate/Stay Night

Chapter 10: Escape from Melromarc/Royal Coronation

**Shirou P.O.V **

I sighed, as now I had one of the four heroes, knocked unconscious and tied up in the cart.

This idiot, he thought he was a hero.

He was the furthest thing from a true hero, not even in the category of an anti-hero.

He would be a villain, not because he was evil, but because his actions caused negative consequences.

I could not fully blame the kid, after all the way he came to be here was ripped right out of a light novel.

I think I remember one where a kid died saving a girl, only to learn in the afterlife that she would've been perfectly fine even had he not done anything. The unpleasant goddess explained that he had had a heart attack from the shock of what he thought he saw, to the humor of the medical staff at the hospital.

Can't quite remember the name.

Anywho, I am rambling in a thinly veiled attempt to ignore the troublesome thing in front of me.

I had not only defeated one of the saint heroes (though saint and hero most of them were not, and honestly skillswise they all were far from heroes, save Naofumi-san, and that was due to me training him and the girls,) but they had no sense of preservation, then again most heroes were not really the sharpest of tools.

Itsuki was suffering from a backlash from me suddenly severing his connection to the curse of the Pride series.

By what I managed to gather, his ego had fragmented, making him as obedient as can be due to having no will. Not only that, but he also had a 30% global status drop due to the curse.

The fragmentation of the ego would occur either when he defeats his opponent or is rendered unable to continue the fight. However if he continued to use the cursed series, the fragmentation would, at some point, become permanent.

My attack severed the curse, but it did not prevent it from wreaking havoc on the poor idiot as it was not external, it was tied to his soul by his weapon.

I untied him as Rishia was taken back and I told Itsuki to perform a dance and then to sit down… she was taken aback by his robotic actions.

"It seems the curse is going through… he should be fine in a week or two… just in time for the next wave," I said.

Rishia was surprised, "How did you know when the next wave will be?"

"I didn't tell you? I am Naofumi-san's… I mean the shield hero's friend and the one who has been training him" I said with a smile.

"FUEEE?!"

After a few hours of travel we arrived to a nearby town, I left Itsuki near a church of the four saints, to make sure the church of the three heroes would not try and meddle with him while he is incapacitated and further twist him into a puppet, with a note explaining that he had been struck by a curse and he was in need of cleansing, this should shorten his recovery by at least half, while giving me time to put distance between us.

I learned something important about the curse series.

Each one was about each of the deadly sins, by that we can take that there will be seven, I've seen the shield of wrath, and the bow of pride, I was wondering if each weapon could embody one sin, or if they could activate any combination of the seven sins simultaneously.. If that was the case I would have to either take the hero down or break his connection to the holy weapon.

I had no idea what would happen if I did the former, but the latter would probably make the weapon try to latch onto _me_, and that would be rather problematic.

I also received a report from Zelretch, it seems that the reason he has been unable to whisk me back was two fold.

One was due to the power of a certain Divine being blocking him, said being had power akin to one of the true magic he himself had. The second was one chilled me to my core.

That was scary, but if I deployed Avalon…. No… I would have to do so in all locations of the time axis… I would have to live inside it else I would be destroyed.

"Damn… this is why I am glad the age of gods died back in my world" I muttered.

Rishia asked me what I meant by that.

I explained to her about my world, how the magic system differs to this world's and about the age of gods.

She grew interested, it seems this girl was quite the bookworm.

As I told her the stories of the myths in my world and their relationship to the magical system she was taken back, the magic in my world had many separate branches, not just elemental and the like.. and then learning about origins and even mystic eyes made her wonder about parallels in this world.

Then I told her about the human side of the world. About the inventions made and how it helped people live more comfortable lives and be more productive.

Vehicles that requires no dragon or filolial? Devices that let a large group of people fly? It felt like fantasy to her.

They went back to Melromarc, as he was mere days away from the next wave. I wished to see Naofumi and the rest of the party's growth since I left.

As I approached the city I was met with many citizens fleeing.

I asked what was going on, Rishia was also taken aback by what was going on.

It seems that the shield Hero and Motoyasu were going at it again…

The bitch princess had sent an attack against her younger sister, who was actually the rightful heir apparent.

Knowing her she tried to do so while making it look like an accident.

I saw Naofumi's shield and saw the history that they shared.

She was in a clearing with filolials when they had found her, not only that but when Motoyasu and Naofumi had been ordered to fight, Melty, the youngest princess had vetoed it and said it was an affront to humanity to let this run its course, as the waves took priority over petty squabbles.

My impression of the young lady increased, unlike her sister she actually had brains.

It also seems as if Naofumi had told the king, in no uncertain terms, to go fuck the right off.

Naofumi-san's stats had increased quite a bit, but found himself unable to class up himself or anyone associated with him, making his growth go even slower as his stats would not increase as much until he gets a class up, not only that but border patrols were expressly ordered to keep him from leaving the kingdom and were told to use extreme force to make him retreat in an attempt to prevent him from doing so in another country.

With the church of the three heroes plotting behind the scenes, this became a clusterfuck.

Naofumi, however, had leveled up beyond the other heroes not in term of levels, but in skill and stats and was now with such a high defence stats that their attacks would just be shrugged off, not only that but his overall stats were many times higher than the other heroes, save his attack of course. Still his attack was now capable of doing considerable damage without relying on crits.

He had also mastered many of the shields, save for Svalin as that shield was special, it would increase its properties depending on how worthy it's wielder was.

It had, so far, doubled all its stats and bonuses and would increase its bonuses at least 7 more times as it had made one out of the 8 jewels shine, which showed its approval.

It was the best shield so far, and allowed to calm the raging inferno that was Naofumi's mind due to exposure to the curse of the Shield of Wrath. It also helped him cool his mind when in use of the Shield of Wrath

So far, Svalin had managed to mitigate the effects of the cursed series, allowing him to be able to use it and mitigate as much as possible the ignition of his wrath and channel it to his foes by forcing him to be cold headed.

They had to flee, as the king got really tired of them and was raging due to the fact this little upstart dared to speak to him that way. Naofumi had defeated a wave when the others couldn't and said to the king that he should be on his hands and knees begging for Naofumi's help. This did not go well. The king wanted to kill him, regardless of the negative outcome. Combined with his daughter fanning the flames of discord, the soldiers were all ready to attack and kill him.

"Are you sure you want to do that? After all, I was the one who beat the leader on my own when none of you could" he said as he looked down at the soldiers, at Trash AND at Bitch. The two biting their lips in anger and rage.

And Malty also took this opportunity to try and get rid of Melty. By causing a scene and making her want to leave with him, she would then convince Motoyasu that the Shield Hero had kidnapped her sister and they had to rescue her, and use this opportunity to kill her and make it look accidental, shift the blame on the Shield, and secure her rightful position as the next Queen.

Once Motoyasu heard her lies, he decided to also free the Lovely angel girl as well and had commissioned alchemists to make a strong magical chain, to prevent Filo from changing to her bird form and keep her this way as to 'save her from Naofumi's tyranny'. Things looked rather grim, even if they were stronger than them, they held numerical superiority, also Raphtalia and Melty did not have his defensive stats, they could be harmed.

**P.O.V** **Naofumi **

"_Damn… this is so stupid, this idiot can't even see what's in front of him… Spear hero… ore like 'an idiot wrapped around the bitch's finger.' not only that but he wants to take Filo?! Screw that!"_ I thought as I charged at him.

His party stood ready smirking condescending at me and tried to pelt me with their strongest fire attacks of the Drifa level, however knowing that they used fire I changed my shield into Svalin.

"Shield Bash!"

A new skill allowed me to use my shield to bash my opponent, and with the attack bonus this shield had I made all those craven bitches fly sky high.

I hoped that it also gave them a concussion as they landed hard on the ground.

I then felt something coming fast by my peripheral vision.

I rapidly twisted my body and blockedMotoyasu's sneak attack with a loud clang.

He glared at me, and shouted some nonsense about me obtaining a brainwashing shield and having all my party members under its influence, no doubt another lie spoon-fed to him by the bitch as she smiled cruelly at me, mocking me.

Don't worry, you will get yours soon enough.

His attacks became much faster than before, it seems that he was powered by ero power, much troublesome as those are always hard to deal with.

However, he was easy to block and deflect his attacks. Where he had not grown a single inch in battle skills or techniques since our duel, I had, and by miles.

Just cause I could not hurt you directly did not mean I couldn't use the environment against you.

Also I noted the Shield now showed a passive debuff effect against anyone who attacks me and I block or deflect their attack.

**Chill of the Nordic**

**Passive Effect: Causes ice damage (small) and reduction of speed by 25% (scales up with approval of shield) when an attack is blocked, parried or deflected (melee only)**

Motoyasu's attack had slowed down and his joints started to Chill, his breath became foggy feeling the accumulated effects of the Shield.

I can win this!

...I should've kept my mind shut. I raised a flag there.

It was then when the knights came as reinforcements as Malty finally cornered her sister in an effort to kill her.

I heard a single phrase as I inwardly pled for someone, anyone to help this girl.

I may hate this world… but…

Shirou taught me that not everyone is evil, that some may try to screw me over… but that is no reason to lose faith in all of humanity, Melty had become attached to Filo and she as well… they became friends, Filo was a good judge of character and I trusted her.

It was a single phrase that held much power. My shield resonated to those words.

"I am the bone of my sword"

A hail of spears and swords rained down caging the soldiers in then. A small prismatic dagger hit the chain that kept Filo in her human form and shattered it into particles.

I knew that phrase.

Coming from the town's entrance he came back, his face hidden behind the hood but with a pair of swords I recognised immediately. I could tell those blades where of mythical quality, even if my shield did not tell me, the sheer conceptual **weight** behind them easily felt by me.

He rushed over and as he passed by me and whispered, "I recommend you all retreat, I will provide cover, outside you will find a cart with a young girl with green hair, join her at the South Gate and go. after you get about forty minutes away I will catch up with you in no more than three hours." Shirou said to me in a whisper.

With both swords he stood against Motoyasu and the bitch.

Motoyasu glared at me before changing targets. He had no idea who he was. His body still feeling stiff from the effects of my Shield, but was gradually recovering as the debuff started to run out.

I smirked as I imagined the one sided beatdown that will happen as I gathered my party and retreated.

**P.O.V Shirou**

I readied my two swords, Kanshou and Bakuya at my side as I looked at the spear hero.

0 form, 8 combat awareness, 20 battle instinct and 10 battle skills. All rated out of a scale of 100.

I showed him a lot of holes to exploit.

The fool charged in as he tried to pass me.

Kanshou slashed at his spear and then an incredible horrible sounded erupted.

His spear… it was marred.

My sword managed to cut into his spear, shocking Motoyasu and Malty. His spear let out a sound akin to a struck beast, but with metallic overtones.

She then began casting a lot of fire spells at me as I simply slashed them with my swords.

"Ren? Is that you? Why the hell are you siding with that rapist!? What's wrong with you!? He even took princess Melty as a hostage!" Motoyasu yelled furiously.

I twisted my body as he charged with [Meteor Spear], I used my hand to shove his spear out of the way and gave him a powerful blow to the stomach with my reinforced knee, it managed to dent the armor somewhat, while I gave him a followup with a roundhouse kick to send him back several feet back.

The place I had hit was smoking.

He quickly stood up as the other girls woke up feeling dizzy. His armor slowly mending itself, I wouldn't be able to exploit that it seems.

"It will take more than that to take me, the holy hero of the spear down!" He said as he made a rather overly pompous flourish with his spear.

So you want to experience a real hero of the spear? Fine… how about one of Fianna's best?

2 spears appeared in my hands, he gasped as he saw what I held.

And he understood something important…

"That's not Ren" Motoyasu said. As he noticed the spears I was brandishing. He paled.

**Name: Gáe Dearg the crimson rose of exorcism**

**Level restriction: 180+**

**Rarity: Mythical**

**Mastery: 100/100**

**Bonus: +80 agility, +90 dexterity +20X damage against magical constructs and demonic beings.**

**Protection from arrows (Huge)**

**Disengage (Huge)**

**Battle continuation (Large)**

**Magic Resistance (Medium)**

**Special property: renders magical enhancements and projections useless by severing all ties with magical energy**

**Name:Gáe Buidhe the golden rose of mortality**

**Level restriction: LV. 180+**

**Rarity:Mythical**

**Mastery: 100/100**

**Bonus: +80 agility, +90 dexterity, +20X damage on beings with high regeneration**

**Protection from arrows (Huge),**

**Disengage (Huge),**

**Battle continuation (Large)**

**Magic resistance (Medium)**

**Special property: lowers the opponent's maximum health limit, thus limiting healing and regeneration abilities to the point where the opponent received the injury. Requires death or destruction of the owner or spear to undo the curse.**

"Well… shit." Motoyasu said as he grimaced. The stat boosts alone were troublesome, not to mention rank and abilities.

And then he noticed something.

"SHIT! THIS GUY IS AT LEAST LEVEL 180! WATCH OUT!" Motoyasu shouted to warn the girls.

I was an impossibility, as people could only level up to lv 100.

The only exception would be…

No, it can't be, all heroes were accounted for! The old ones died so there was no...

I had suddenly vanished in a puff of dirt. As it was displaced violently due to my speed.

He turned around, his instincts saving him from a stab at his arm but not a blow to the face with the other spear as I move behind him faster than his eyes could track.

He was weary of the golden spear, good… keep your eyes on it.

He attacked me with skills but the red spear shut the skills off forcibly and pierced his armor, ignoring it's magical defensive properties and piercing his chest in a non vital area. I also slammed the shaft of the spear to knock him off balance and continue to assault him.

His girls attacked me with any and all magic at their disposal from every angle they could muster, all in the hopes that they could buy their spear hero a few precious seconds where he could get a hit in while I was distracted.

Under normal circumstances, that might have worked. Unfortunately for them, I was channeling the history of the original wielder of these spears: Diarmuid Ua Duibhne. And he fought more competent mages than noble daughters playing at adventurer.

With expert movements, I dodged their magic or dispelled it outright with a slash or a spin of the spears.

I got tired of their attacks so I grabbed one of the girls and used her as a human shield to blocka fireball from Malty. She screamed and cried in pain.

The blast of fire shot by Malty scorched her face, leaving her with horrific burns that reflected the twisted woman she was inside.

"NOOO CLAIRE! YOU MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU MAR A WOMAN'S FACE!" He said as he forgo of any skills and went to attack with the spear with pure rage and anger.

Parry parry, block block, dodge left, dodge, parry, slam the shaft of the spear to his face, retreat and pierce his armor once more. All of his attacks, no matter how ferocious and swift were blocked and parried with ridiculous ease as sparks flew from the exchange we had, each sounding like ricocheting bullets.

More and more was Motoyasu tiring up, he had lost a LOT of blood and used his SP a lot without restraint but it seems like he had something akin to battle continuation… if only at the rank of E.

Malty, the bitch was taken back, seeing that it was useless to continue, she did not want to get scarred, her good looks was strongest weapon after all.

She took a single step back, that was my cue.

In a single movement I threw one of my spears at her, piercing her left leg and foot to the ground, she yelled in bloody murder

"MALTY!" Motoyasu yelled as he turned to look at her.

I reinforced the spear and slammed the shaft of it at the base of his neck, knocking him out.

I then made the spears vanish as Malty fell to the ground in pain, unable to move but glare at me venomously. I made a fast retreat, as the health of the princess and the spear hero would be a top priority to them, however taking revenge on my attacking them would be high as well. A few guards chased after me, I needed to get them off my tail.

Over 20 giant swords appeared and embedded themselves by the gate, blocking access as I continued undeterred to the rendezvous point. I had to deflect a volley of arrows shot at me as I rushed beyond the castle town walls.

I continued as I avoided guards for a while, hiding around as I managed to get into the farmlands, many of then had been abandoned due to damages caused by the last wave and so I used them to hide in and wait for the guards to tire and changed out of my armor.

I stepped out and whistled loudly as the carriage Fafnir was pulling arrived promptly, Naofumi and the rest where hidden under a runic cover that made the inside appear empty.

Rishia was currently with Fafnir's reigns.

"Quick! Get in!" She said hurriedly.

I jumped into the carriage as we exited the place, becoming hunted by the crown.

"Sooo… I see you been busy Naofumi-san" I said as Naofumi and the rest emerged from the runic tarp cover.

He was smiling, genuinely happy to see me back.

"Shirou… glad to have you back" Naofumi said.

"Indeed, I am very happy that Shirou-sama has come back"

"Yay! Uncle Shirou is back so we get to have lotsa tasty food!"

As we continued we managed to get into a forest, were we updated each other to what we have done when we split up.

In order to make sure we would not be followed I tied up a lot of branches with leaves at the back of the cart, so as it passed the leaves would obscure the tracks by brushing them, it should buy us some time, Thankfully Fafnir had been equipped with what passes for horseshoes for dragons, making his steps much softer as to not tire the creatures much, it had been reinforced by Shirouso it was even better.

I did not take into account that the bitch did not care about anything except to make sure she was the only one in line for the crown.

It was night, several hours had passed as we went to another town to scape the corrupt crown. It seemed that Motoyasu had woken up and gave Malty any and all healing potions and restorative potions as well as holy water given by the church of the heroes of the highest quality.

The wound on her leg remained, the curse still prevailing regardless of the church's best attempts.

However she decided to bandage it and take potions to dull the pain and went along with Motoyasu to find us.

They had no luck as I had obscured our tracks, however she knew we couldn't have gotten too far, so instead she opted for scorched earth tactics.

A bottle of linseed oil shattered against a tree trunk, and with an incantation of "First Fire." a flame sprang from her palm to the puddle, setting the tree alight, the rest of the canopy swiftly following as the mages in her group bombarded the forest with fire spells of their own.

Malty was perfectly willing to burn the whole forest just to make sure we would die, along with her sister. It would be a bonus as she could blame the Shield for "kidnapping" her or she could also frame him for starting the fire, either way she would win.

If only she used her mind for better things.

I had to prevent the fire from spreading too far, Melty was a water user, but she couldn't do anything too big, she would need something to enhance her water ability.

I may just have the solution.

"Trace… on." In my hands formed a short blade with a circular decoration at the end of the pommel.

I gave it to Melty.

"Use the biggest water magic you have, pour everything into it, and don't worry about the results, just believe that it will accomplish what it needs to do," I said to her, she looked at Naofumi and he nodded.

She nodded and her face was determined to accomplish this.

"I am the source of all power. Hear my words and heed them. Drop rains of mercy! First Squall!" she said.

The blade shone with an aquamarine light.

What was to be a small area of effect became a downpour as it rained heavily all over extinguishing the fire made by her evil elder sister.

"Th- this is at the level of Driffa… no, higher! how?" Melty asked in shock and awe.

The Sword of Paracelsus, a powerful mystic code, it used its ability to further enhance her magical attack with True Ether (false) enhancing it to levels unheard of.

She looked at the blade as it disappeared into small lights.

"We need to keep moving, your sister will be pissed, I must say she is quite resilient, I did spear her leg and foot into the ground, even with healing magic she shouldn't have been able to move, is she really like this or only her desire to be queen that motivates her?" I asked as we continued going south-south west.

However it seems as if Motoyasu had an inkling as to where we would be going, we wanted to meet the queen, but he predicted our movements and closed that area.

"Could it be that Shadows have been feeding him information about us?" Naofumi asked.

I shook my head, "no Shadows have entered the area, any of them that come would have been noted and dealt with" I said.

That reassured them.

"Ah."

Melty looked as though she'd had a realization. She was staring at Naofumi.

"What?" he said.

"I know a wealthy family in this area. They might let us hide out until Motoyasu has moved on. Then we could escape without being seen."

"You want to head into town? You? And me? Even Filo is pretty recognizable these days."

Their faces were very well known. The crystal ball they had used was like a 3-D photograph back in my world. There wasn't a soul alive in Melromarc that didn't know their face.

If someone saw Filo, they'd report that too. She'd been turning into a more average-looking filolial these days.

We'd seen the village from a distance, and there were clearly a number of guards posted there.

"And you say they are wealthy?" Naofumi asked.

The powerful families of Melromarc tended to really hate the Shield Hero. According to what Meltyy said, and as far as the teachings of the Church of the Three Heroes were concerned, the Shield Hero was Melromarc's enemy. It didn't matter how many people's trust Naofumi managed to earn on his mercantile wanderings. The nobility and the powerful families would still hate him.

"I think it will be fine." she said

"Why?"

"This particular family always worked very closely with my mother. I think they share her way of thinking."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They were very involved in demi-human to human relations in Melromarc. They tried to help everyone get along."

"Then why don't they speak out against your father, Trash, and the Church?" Naofumi asked.

**Naofumi P.O.V**

If they were so enlightened and active, why did everyone still disbelieve me? Why did they all hate me?

If they had really worked so closely with the queen, then they certainly couldn't claim ignorance about Melromarc's internal affairs.

"They were a noble family in charge of managing a territory called Seyaette. But they died in the wave."

"Oh…"

Damn… I see, it wasn't their fault, they couldn't due to the virtue of being dead. Why is it that good people die young while the bad people are allowed to live luxuriously?

"They were vacationing in their lands when the wave happened. They fought to protect the people who lived there… until the end." Melty said solemnly.

"That's terrible…" I said sincerely.

"Yes. We lost them in the first wave. It was a great sacrifice." Melty said.

Huh? The first wave?

I looked over at Raphtalia. She had met a hard fate during the first wave too.

She nodded.

"My village was under the protection of the governor. But the governor died, and we tried to rebuild… the village was…"

So it was all true.

"When we lost that family, we lost the last voice that spoke for the compassionate treatment of demi-humans. Any remaining powers that held the same views were given reassignments by my father. That's not the worst of it either. I've heard that the inhabitants of Seyaette met a hard fate in the ensuing violence." Melty said as she found out of her father's machinations.

"Violence by the Crown's soldiers." Raphtalia said with ill concealed irritation.

"I believe my mother, once she returns, will see that they are punished. She sent a letter, but it seems to have been ignored. Once all this is over, Raphtalia, please tell me about the soldiers that did these things." Melty said.

"I don't think it will be as easy as you say" Shirou said.

They all turned to look at him.

"From what I have seen your father and the many corrupt nobles have already set fail safes to keep up the corruption even if they are dealt with, they would surely have asked someone to handle their affairs secretly while also undermining your mother's authority from the shadows, there is only one way to deal with them…" h said and held off as they all looked at him, until I started laughing.

"No way! Really? This is so hilarious!" I said as I tried to breathe.

"Shirou-sama? W-what do you mean?" Raphtalia asked with trepidation.

"The complete extinction of said noble's family and any and all who had ties with them, this will in turn will make sure no one can retaliate as they would all be dead." Shirou said in a cold and clinical manner.

Both Melty and Raphtalia were shocked by his statement.

"Yeah, that makes sense," I said. "But that would leave a foul taste in my mouth, I may hate them but I don't wanna kill people who got involved without knowing, it would make me no better."

Shirou nodded, approving of what I had said.

"As I said, that would be the easiest, the other would be by making an example of them and having trusted demi-humans in places of power to give a balance and checks of powers." Shirou said.

Melty and Raphtalia blinked owlishly, not comprehending what Shirou said.

"Ah! You mean like the diet?" I said remembering about how Japan and many other governments had a system so no governmental branch had too much power.

"Diet? What are you saying? Am I fat? I been eating a bit more lately but surely-" Raphtalia said worried.

"No, a diet is when a group of governmental branches are given powers to act according to what they are to do, however there are others that keep an eye and are given power to stop the other if they are doing something bad or wrong, to balance things and keep then even and clean, counterbalancing influences by which an organization or system is regulated, typically those ensuring that political power is not concentrated in the hands of individuals or groups." I said as I remember some of my lectures back in college.

"That sounds like a good system!" Melty said. "Wait… it kinda sounds like Siltvelt!"

"Yes, but it does have it's faults, still it is better than the mess we have here, no offence princess, Also the system implemented back then is not as modern as the one we are from… so differences may exist." Shirou said.

"Please, call me Melty." she said giving a curtsy at him.

"Call me Shirou." he said with a smile.

We had arrived at the town Melty had told us about.

"Everyone hide under the tarp." Shirou said.

As we did we saw Shirou changing his hair and skin color, his hair changed into one of pure white, like someone who suffered from Marie Antoinette syndrome and his skin turned tanned.

We got into the checkpoint of the city, the guards checked the cart but found it empty save for a few crates with fruits and dried meats.

He paid his entry fee and we left without further interruptions.

We tried to flag some demi-humans for help, but all fled, it seems as the church of the three heroes was disseminating a misinformation campaign as a way to further hinder us.

According with what Raphtalia found, they said that "the shield Hero has asked to be left alone and unmolested.''

"Crafty little bastards" Shirou said with a chuckle.

It was then when someone I knew spotted us.

It was a fellow I sold some of my merch to, he looked like an intellectual and has an affable aura around him so I took to giving him the nickname of " Guy"

I looked out to the road from the cart, and Nice Guy was there. He wore glasses, and was sitting in a high-class carriage. He stopped it and called out to us.

Yeah, I remembered. Nice Guy had been nobility in that town.

"Could that be Princess Melty and the Shield Hero in there?" he asked.

"Um… yes?"

"Yeah."

"It's dangerous to speak here. Would you accompany me back to my residence?"

Judging by the direction he'd come from, he must have come out here to meet us. So he HAD been thinking about us.

"If you try to hand us off to the other heroes, we'll cause a big ruckus." I said

"Naofumi, you shouldn't…"

"And by 'We,' I mean my subordinates and this barbaric princess."

"What was that?!"Melty shot me an ice-cold glare."YOU'RE the barbarian!"

"What are you saying? I'm the most sophisticated hero by a long shot." I said waving my hand.

"You once sold me an item, for which I am very grateful. The materials are quite simple, so you see pieces like it everywhere, but your design, Hero, makes it much more valuable to me. It cost five times more than similar items, but I still feel like it was worth it."

Melty was really glaring at me now.

"I'm very sorry." Raphtalia held her head in her hands.

"Anyway, Naofumi, we should go with this man for now. We can hear all about how you've behaved later."

"Why do I have to talk with _you_ about _my_ behavior?" I said giving an air of being offended.

"Because these issues are going to keep popping up. Could it be _your _fault that people call you the Shield Demon?" she asked as she poked at my chest.

"Any stories you hear will be stories of my valorous deeds." I said with a smirk.

"Don't act like you are proud of your crimes!" she said feeling scandalized.

Whatever. I can deceive my enemies all day long and not feel a bit of guilt for 's all about perspective. Modesty can look like cowardice to an enemy.

"Okay kids, settle down that's enough for now. If you cause a fuss here, Motoyasu and that nasty piece of work of a princess will find us." Shirou said.

Hm… Shirou was right. We silently followed Nice Guy's carriage to his residence.

We were given a great meal and a place to stay as Mr. Nice Guy asked us a few questions, he heard that a considerable portion of the forest was set ablaze but was promptly extinguished by a rather miraculous downpour.

We explained that it was due to Melty and her magic, it was for his own safety that we did not tell him the whole truth, if word leaked of Shirou's abilities… we would have a shit ton of more trouble.

Mr. Nice Guy understood that we couldn't tell him the whole picture and so he did not push it further.

I asked if it could be possible to stay for a while, and also asked if he had information of the other heroes.

It was then when the green haired girl coughed.

"I may be able to tell you about one of the other heroes..." Shirou said.

**30 minutes later**

All of the staff of Mr. Nice Guy was shocked, I was trying to hold in my laughter, Raphtalia had her hands on her face shaking it and begging that this was a joke, Melty was equally appalled by the description of all that he did to the best of his ability, not only that but once he said just **how** those silver effigies people of the church of the three heroes had, it sickened everyone present, more than three of the maids had to rush to vomit due to the sheer horror of what they had heard.

"I was aware that the church of the three heroes hated demi-humans and had a human supremacist view, but to go to this extent…" he was appalled at all this his face turned a shade of green.

"I am quite sure that the king facilitated this to happen." Naofumi said.

Melty looked cross at him "Yeah, he had… I managed to see that from the staff he carries" Shirou said.

I rose an eyebrow, and then remembered what he explained about his magic.

"You read the accumulated history of his staff uh?" I said.

Shirou nodded.

The man became one sick bastard. After the loss of his sister he went on a one man crusade against all demi-humans, specially the white tiger ones… he developed a bit of a murder bonner about it, but something did not add up… there was something missing here, why would that had happened? Why would the Hakuko attack?

Melty was confused "I am sorry… but I must be honest and direct with you, your father is a rather bad person to his core, he wishes for you to not take the throne, rather Malty, as she is his favorite daughter, with the same views as him towards demi-humans, once crowned she could continue to spread the poison of hatred until all demi-humans are exterminated. This was due to him losing his young sister due to an attack by a demi-human tribe." Shirou said.

"Is that how you knew about Bitch being up to no good?" I asked.

"In part, the other is due to me noticing the sheer amount of hatred and contempt she and her father had for you." Shirou said.

Shirou took initiative and said he would keep watch as he made runic symbols on the doors, he made some on the door-frame at the entrance as well.

**P.O.V Shirou**

It wasdusk when I heard the sound of a carriage.

A small, fat man jumped out of the carriage and knocked on the door of the mansion. He was followed by a large group of soldiers. I was at the roof of the mansion with my bow at the ready as well as many nameless swords ready to be altered into arrows and shot when needed.

They came here due to suspicions of the 'Shield Demon' being harbored here.

I understood it now.

They had known of this man's views and knew they could corner us here, while at the same time further destroying Naofumi's faith in people.

The fat lard of a man reminded me of a pig to be up honest, ugly, yet it seems that he had no small amount of combat experience, more than the other three heroes at least.

It seems Melty had decided to try and clear Naofumi's name and agreed to go with him.

Quickly once the fat man had left I, along with Naofumi, noticed Raphtalia's change… her face looked deathly pale and her body shivering.

She knew that noble that had come in.

Judging by her reaction…

"Melty… she is in trouble isn't she?" I asked as Raphtalia nodded as tears threatened to flow out.

I looked at Naofumi and he nodded, "She might be Bitch's sister, but she never betrayed my trust, the least I can do is save her" he said.

I asked Mr. Nice Guy to give me a rundown of the fat noble's mansion, making a diagram I propositioned the plan, they would enter and cause a commotion, Raphtalia, due to knowing him, would cause problems but it also served a secondary purpose.

She needed revenge.

This noble had broken her and killed her friends in front of her when she was but a child.

She held the knives I gave to her before my leaving, and so I decided to give her something she would have a much better use of.

The Azoth blade.

I told her to shout the activation word "release" one she plunged the blade into the bastard.

I did not tell her what would happen after.

I smiled as I remembered that fake priest… no wait… that was not my own memory but other Shirou's.

I would sneak around and get into his dungeon.

I was pretty sure it wouldn't be as bad as the last one.

**Minutes later**

It was almost as bad. It seems these noble bastards seemed to share similar hobbies. Inside were many dead bodies of demi-human children, inside one of the jail was a pile of bones of a small girl… possibly decades old. Darkly, it seemed as though some of them were spared by this noble's bigotry, as there were no signs of rape that I could see.

"Man… this whole world is a shit-hell" I muttered as I continued.

"Who's there?" A raspy and tired voice asked.

"Are you a okay? Let me get you out" I said.

"Just… just leave me here… there is nothing for me to go back to... Even she is gone…" the voice said dejectedly.

"Who is?" I asked.

"Little Raphtalia…" the voice said.

I followed the voice and found a small child handcuffed to the wall, the child was around age 10… short spiky dark hair and dog ears and blue eyes.

"Raphtalia isn't dead." I said.

"Don't do this…. Don't give me hope… she is dead… I am all alone now" the child said.

With a slash of my blade the kids changes shattered, and he fell to the ground.. Gently picking him up, I gave the kid a piggyback ride outside.

Once we got to the outside gardens we heard a violent explosion.

It was the pig noble… whose name I learned was Idol Rabier.

It seems Raphtalia has used the blade's magic.

**About 30 minutes earlier**

**Raphtalia P.O.V**

He was the monster that haunted my dreams… he was the reason she had panic attacks and night terrors, all her friends dying in front of her.

"YOU MONSTER! YOU KILLED THEN ALL!" I yelled.

"Oh, be quiet you subhuman, you are things to be used and disposed of! You subhuman are for torturing and killing as a service to our God." He yelled as he grabbed his whip.

As he used it to try whip Raphtalia but she dodged it and hit a nearby soldier.

"Gyaaaaah!" The soldier yelled as his armor twisted and killed the poor idiot with his own armor.

"Careful not to get hit" Naofumi-sama warned.

I dodged and used a minor illusion spell and had him kill his own men.

I parried his whip attacks with my sword making sure to avoid it hitting my armor or body.

Naofumi-sama blocked anyone from interfering as I was about to get my revenge.

As I managed to close the distance between us he pleaded for mercy.

Mercy? We're was mercy for my dead friend?

"Die you sub creature!" he yelled as he wielded his whip with more vigor, he did not care who he hit, friend or foe, he had to kill her, it was his duty, it was his pleasure…. His whip demanded him to.

After using this whip for so long and commit such atrocities, the whip gained something akin to sentience, much like muramasa swords, it was cursed, its curse was to always kill in the most violent way possible anything it hit. The noble thought it was a blessing from his God, but it was the sheer pain and anguish of all his victims seethed into the whip, making it something akin to a noble phantasm prototype.

Many of his soldiers died as their armors twisted themselves with their bodies still in, all dying in ghastly and horribly manner.

But he did not care, he had tunnel vision, this was his old slave that he could not finish off, he had to! He had to for his god! He had to kill these subhumans and destroy the demon that was the shield!

Then I pulled the blade Shirou-sama had projected for me.

"YOU KILLED THEM… YOU REJOICED ON THEIR SUFFERING SO NOW FEEL THEIR PAIN! RELEASE!" She said as she lunged and plunged the blade at his heart.

She pushed herself away as the jewel began to glow.

**Booom**

There was now a fist sized hole in his chest he fell down from the 3rd story.

I began to cry… as I have lost them, my village friends. My legs gave up and I started to cry, I may have killed him… I had avenged my friends...but I still felt empty, this action would not bring them back… once the clock marches, it cannot go back

Naofumi wrapped his arms around me as well as Filo and Melty.

No one said a word… what there was to say?

We began to make our way downstairs as we found Shirou-sama carrying…

"It can't be… Keel?" I said.

"Who are you?" Keel said.

It was to be expected… I had grown in levels…

"It's me, Raphtalia" I said.

"No… you can't be… she wasn't as beautiful as you… she was so cute and small." Keel said.

Then I decided to prove who I was by telling rather embarrassing stories of the dumb things he'd done back at the village when he was mortified and beleive me to be me.

Shirou-sama also managed to bring back the remains of my old friend… the poor thing was nothing more than brittle bones, he used a shroud of a saint to protect the bones until the time we could give it proper burial, as a way to about it coming back as a wraith or the like.

Just as we thought we were safe that bastard came back.

He had a hole in his chest… blood pouring out of it but he had a manic look on his face. Naofumi-sama handed Keel to the good noble...

Mr. Nice Guy took Keel and ran while the rest of us approached the fat man as he chanted at the sealing stone.

"You've finally come, Shield Demon!" He was screaming like an insane person now.

"I don't know what's sealed inside that thing, but you better stop that right now." Myself and Filo readied for battle.

Now that we were outside, it would be easier to fight than it had been in that small room.

"You're too late. If only you hadn't shown up, this town would still be peaceful!" he said as he held his ungodly effigy in his hand .

"Peaceful? Ha! If you hadn't stolen Melty and dragged her here, none of this would be happening!" Naofumi-sama said.

"It's all your fault, Shield Demon!" the bastard exclaimed, denying any fault for his actions.

**Naofumi P.O.V**

"I don't have time to listen to the complaints of a coward who gets his kicks from torturing children." I didn't know what was sealed away in there, but I had to find some way to stop him.

The longer we wait, the worse things were going to get.

The other heroes would probably look on with relish. They would want to fight a monster to get its rare items and experience. But I say it's better to let sleeping dogs lie.

"I am **not** a coward! I am purging the world of its lower life forms! I am a righteous man!" he exclaimed with insanity in his eyes.

Dammit… there was no reasoning with him.

I knew how it felt to find joy in the misery of people you hated, so I thought that maybe we could come to an understanding. But I was wrong. I never truly wished for the death of anyone, ever.

Even if it was about a specific person, maybe that was understandable, but to hate an entire class of people made no sense at all!

Anyway, who knew what this guy was up to?

I stepped forward and began to prepare a skill that would restrain the nobleman. But before I could use it, the stone cracked and fell to pieces.

"It is finished. If I can kill the Shield Demon, my place in God's heaven will be secure! Ah, ha, ha!" The nobleman let out a laugh like a broken toy. The ground began to shake. Cracks appeared in the earth.

"What's happening?"

"Yes! Destroy it all! The sealed monster will destroy the Shield Demon!"

The sky over the mansion was filled with purple light.

I looked up to see cracks appearing in the sky, like a tortoise shell. It was at that very moment that the sealed monster appeared.

"Master!" All of Filo's feathers stood on end. She was staring at the sky.

"What is that?!" Large reptilian feet, tipped with large, sharp claws, slowly stepped through the crack. They were followed by a large, muscular body, then an enormous eyeball, and finally a massive jaw appeared, rimmed with teeth so large and sharp they could shred metal. I saw what the monster was. It was a 20-meter tall, carnivorous… dinosaur.

"This is a joke right?" Shirou said feeling kinda like this came from the left field.

A huge dinosaur appeared in the sky. I didn't call it a dragon on purpose. It looked exactly like a dinosaur. To be more specific, it looked like an overgrown Tyrannosaurus Rex, but meaner and scarier.

It wasn't like a normal monster in the field. It was a dinosaur. A rift opened in the sky above us, and the massive beast came crashing down into the mansion.

"Ha, ha, ha! For the glory of **God**!" he yelled maniacally as he fell down with a satisfied grin dying from his destroyed heart.

The mansion collapsed under the weight of the dinosaur. Then, with insanity still in his eyes, the nobleman was instantly crushed under the foot of the advancing beast. He was crazy all the way until the end. And he did crazy things until the end. How were we supposed to defeat such a huge monster?

"We're all escaping together! Filo, you understand?!"

"Yeah!" Filo ran back to the courtyard entrance, and picked up Nice Guy and Keel before running away.

Raphtalia, Melty, Shirou and myself all took off running in unison. We made for the property exit.

It seems like this guy honestly wanted me dead and then some.

"Probably a true zealot of the church of the three heroes, they noted your growth and compared to the other three… well… let's just say that they don't like their so called saints outdone by the one called the demon." Shirou said as he took a few shots at the T-rex monstrosity.

A bunch of us wanted to fight it off, however there was a problem, "This is a residential area! If we do this here many will die in the crossfire" I said.

We needed to lead it away from here, and cause the least amount of damage possible.

The dinosaur was sniffing around to see where its prey had vanished too.

This didn't feel right. There, I caught sight of its name: Tyrant Dragon Rex. Something on the dinosaur's chest began to glow. At the same time, Filo's stomach started glowing too.

"Um… Filo?"

"What?" she said as she turned her head sideways in her filolial form.

"The dinosaur is looking straight at us, and I think it might have something to do with your glowing stomach."

"Hm…. Well, you know what? I think that big gecko wants to eat me!"

"Okay, Filo, you run! Lure the monster out of town!"

"What? Naofumi? Are you going to abandon Filo?" Melty said in shock.

"No, I want her to lure the monster somewhere away from people and then come back!"

"But he's after Filo, so I don't think he'll just let her go!"

"…You're right." I'd thought that Filo was fast enough to make it, but I shouldn't use her as bait.

"No! I want to stay with you, Master!"

"Naofumi-sama, you shouldn't ask that of her." Raphtalia said.

"No… he is right, but she is not going alone" Shirou said as a familiar bridle appeared in his hands.

"You got this?" I asked.

Shirou nodded.

"Filo, listen, I will use the bridle on you once we got that overgrown lizards attention, once we manage to get him away from town, that's when we will counter attack" Shirou said to her.

"UMU! Understood!" She exclaimed.

Shirou mounted up in her and got near the dragon, the son of a bitch had crazy plans but I know he would never put anyone in danger… if anything he would put himself in the thick of it.

Filo would be fine.

And so we all left to do out part of the plan.

**Shirou P.O.V**

I was on top of Filo once more and got close to the t-rex.

My bow was ready, tracing and altering unnamed swords I swiftly shot at the monstrosity.

The sword arrows pierced deeply into its leathery thick skin, making it roar in anger but with a flex he broke the sword-arrows that bit into him.

It then noticed the glow on Filo's stomach and chased after us.

"Quick, go by where are the least amount of buildings!" I said.

"Hold on tight!" She said as she kicked the ground.

We were now on the roof of a house, she swiftly ran making sure that I was stable with her wings so I could harras that overgrown lizard with my attacks.

I needed to buy some time in order to put the bridle on her.

"Trace… ON!" I shot six black keys at the T-rex and four of them bit into his shadow.

"It won't last long, quick let's get this on you!" I said as I affixed Bellerophon on her.

A powerful roar.

The monster attacked with its tail… it was too late for me to dodge.

"Uncle Shirou!" Filo yelled.

"My body… is made of blades." I said as the tail was but mere inches away.

One heartbeat.

My body had changed, my body was made of swords… I had changed the perception by which I viewed myself from human to a being which is a sword.

My muscles changed, it was now blades interlocked into muscle shape, same as my bones, I would have some internal bleeding, but it beats being outright dead.

The tail impacted me, thankfully along with reinforcement I managed to tank the worst of it, still a fair few ribs got broken.

Avalon's passive regeneration was slow going as I was not Saber. Even if it acknowledged me as its new user I was inferior to the original, I did not have the sheer amount of mana she could have when alive.

Filo picked me up and put me on her now attached saddle.

"OH! Filo feels many times stronger now!" Filo said as she looked at the monster with anger.

**Filo's P.O.V**

"_How dare you…."_

_"How dare you hurt master and uncle Shirou!" _

I quickly charged at the dragon.

My speed was godly, my strength could cleave a mountain.

Using my magic I enhanced my speed further.

"Hakyuku!"

My body broke something in the area… everything felt like it was so very slow, like that time when I raced against Fafnir when he was with creepy stalker guy.

1,2,5,8,10,18,20…

Over 50 kicks in the span of a single second.

Once I landed carefully as to not further injure Uncle Shirou theground melted a bit. The speed and force was such that my claws hot heated up enough to burn the ground.

The huge dragon had multiple stamps of my claws on its face, breaking it's ugly nose.

I understood one thing.

"_This is not my power…"_

The dragon glared at me with fury as it charged once more.

We were doing something called a "game of cat and mouse" as uncle Shirou explained.

We needed to act as the mouse and rile up the big ugly brute and lead it away from the city to make sure casualties are kept down.

There was a lot of complicated things but I was told if I did a good job I would get extra helpings so I eagerly agreed.

Still the power I had was enough to harm it greatly, but not kill it, I could feel uncle Shirou getting better but not fast enough.

Once we got into the forest and found the rest of the group I threw uncle Shirou to Raphtalia-oneechan, she quickly gave him a health potion as his body began to mend faster.

It was then when Master got on top of me.

More power was siphoning to me.

I trilled with excitement.

**Naofumi P.O.V**

This was insane, how the hell is a T-rex here… and worse, made into a dragon?

I called out "Air Strike Shield! Second Shield!" and used them as a platform to deliver another attack with Filo to its face with a sickening crack. The monster roared in pain as blood began to pour from its nose.

Filo was glowing in a golden light that enveloped us, her attacks now leaving rather deep marks on its face and breaking its bones. A sickening crack was heard around its jaw.

It was then when shit hit the fan.

It's scales began to change into a black color and it's eyes turning white. Arcs of red lightning emerged from its body.

It's power has begun to climb.

With a single swipe of his tail he nearly killed us, if it wasn't for my armor and the many stat bonuses I had in my defense we would have been a red paste on the ground.

Now? I would need to use **it**.

Raphtalia engaged and stabbed it with her sword, leaving it stuck on the body of the saurian.

It took a few minutes but Shirou stood back up.

"I am the bone of my sword"

That phrase…

"Steel is my body… and fire is my blood"

Filo's feathers stood up.

"What is uncle Shirou doing?" She asked a bit fearful.

"I have created over a thousand blades, unaware of loss nor aware of gain"

Something was forming in his hands.

_**Warning! Erosion of Reality! Heroes are not permitted to cross between worlds..**_

The shield warned me of this…. What the hell? Another world?

"Stay your hand offworlder, I shall deal with this pest myself." a voice came out.

Off in the distance I heard some kind of animal call.

What was it?

The area started to fill with small floating lights, like fireflies.

"Huh?" Filo held her wings against her head, like she was trying to concentrate.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I can hear someone talking. They're saying that they will be here soon, so we should wait." Filo said.

"Who said that?"

"I dunno!"

What was happening? We were right in the middle of a battle here! The Tyrant Dragon Rex seemed to sense that something was happening also. It raised its head and was looking around.

"Naofumi."

"What?"

"There's some kind of bounded field." Shirou said.

"Bounded field?"

"Yes. Can't you see it? It's like a mist hanging over us. I can't tell what it does, but it's meant to not allow people in"

I tried to look far into the distance, but the air grew thick, and I couldn't see very far.

"That looks like a very powerful bounded field." Shirou said worried. "Territory creation?"

"What is it?"

"I've heard of a mysterious forest. There are legends about it. I heard that the old weapons of the Heroes from long ago are sleeping there, and that it's protected by a force field to keep people away." Melt said.

"Sounds like you know all about it." I said.

"My mother likes legends, and she took me to see the mysterious forest. The force field looked just like this."

What was that supposed to mean? Did it mean that we weren't going to be able to escape even if we tried?

"When you try to cross over it, it brings you back to where you started. I think someone has cast a force field over us." Someone was trapping us? That didn't sound good at all.

I imagined that Bitch or Trash had hired an assassin to do this to us. I imagined them reclining back and watching us to make sure we died at the hands of the Tyrant Dragon Rex.

What it meant was this: there was no way out. I looked around. The grass and trees were filled with strange lights.

What the hell was going on?

Suddenly an enormous herd of filolials appeared and came running straight for us.

The whole field was covered in filolials. This was turning into a traumatic experience.

"Wow… filolials!"

Melty's eyes were shining. She looked so happy.

Why did she like filolials so much?! Whatever—this was not the time to entertain her hobbies.

"GYAOOOOOOOOO!"

The dinosaur howled in anger at the new developments. Then he lowered his head to attack.

Dammit… We had no choice.

I prepared to switch to the Shield of Rage.

"_Don't_."

My shield arm flew back, struck with a sharp pain.

I looked down to find the shield itself glowing. I was still able to change shields if I wanted though.

I tried, again, to switch to the Shield of Wrath. But…

—**Due to interference, you may not change weapons. **

A flashing icon appeared in my field of vision, and I was no longer able to switch shields.

There was also a small clock displaying the remaining time before I could make a switch. I could probably switch shields again when the timer ran out.

"Who's there?!" A voice I'd never heard before had interjected and kept me from changing shields. Why would they stop me? What were they after?

"_You will be alright. Just wait. You do no need to turn to that power_."

"Damn..."

"Hiya!" Filo flipped through the air and delivered a solid kick to the dinosaur's jaw before landing deftly in the grass and dashing back, picking up Raphtalia and I to take us back to Melty, Shirou was on the other side pelting the ugly brute with his arrow-swords.

"What's happening?" Melty asked.

"They said to stand back." I didn't hear that. Or did she mean that strange voice?

We were completely surrounded by filolials. There were too many to count. Their eyes were shining in the dark. The sheer number of them was unbelievable.

What was happening?

My only idea was that they were somehow trying to trap the monster there. Could it be that they formed giant herds to hunt giant monsters? Or maybe they were trying to get Filo to join their group? The herd of filolials split around the monster. It was just like the parting of the Red Sea.

"Gah!"

One of the filolials stepped out of the group and started to walk in our direction.

It looked a lot like Filo when she was in her "normal" filolial form, but this one was light blue. It stood about two meters tall, and looked a lot like a large ostrich.

But it looked… fluffier than other filolials. Like its feathers were softer. It also had a single feather that stuck vertically up from the crown of its head.

Most filolials were pink, we also seen some other colors as well, but this one was a light blue color. There were still white patches, but most of it was blue. It was pulling a gorgeous carriage, and a large gemstone was set in the center of it.

The jewel reminded me of a gemstone I'd seen before… but I couldn't remember where.

I looked at my shield. Then I realized… It was the same shape as the jewel in the center of my shield.

"Hey! It's that filolial from before!" Melty exclaimed.

"You know this thing?" I asked.

"Yes. I met her before I ran into you guys."

"Really?" She had a sense of authority about her. She was clearly the leader of the herd, and she didn't seem as dull-witted as a typical filolial.

Shirou looked at it, his hands flexing.

"I saw this one before… when I saved the people from Rishia's lands" Shirou said.

The Tyrant Dragon Rex appeared to recognize these qualities in her as well. The beast seemed to be on guard and ready to attack at any moment, but was holding back to see what the blue filolial would do.

"Wow! What a cool carriage! I'm jealous…" Filo's eyes sparkled when she caught sight of the carriage.

I didn't like it. The last thing I wanted was to parade around like new money. Besides, I could imagine what the public would say if they saw me in that thing.

"Gah!" The blue filolial removed the reins from herself and stepped forward. Another filolial swooped in behind her and removed the carriage.

"What's happening?"

"Gweeeeeeeeeeeh!" The blue filolial let out a sustained call. All the leaves on the trees and bushes began to shine a bright green, and a powerful wind blew through the area.

What was going on?

The blue filolial began to grow. She expanded into a large, black silhouette.

She was huge…

The silhouette was big and puffy. She was transforming, but she was able to grow much larger than Filo could. When she'd first stepped forward she stood about two meters tall, but in almost no time she'd grown to at least six meters, andshe kept growing until she was the same size as the Tyrant Dragon Rex. .

"Wow! She's so big!" Melty was unable to hide her joy. She whispered to herself like a giddy child. Compared to the pink and white filolials below, this filolial Queen was clearly light blue.

The major difference was the three vertical feather that stood from the crown of her head.

"I've kept you waiting, Shield Hero. And you too, little girl who likes filolials."

The huge filolial Queen finished greeting us and then directed her gaze to the Tyrant Dragon Rex. Her voice sounded a lot like Filo's but was perhaps a bit deeper.

"She spoke!"

"Filo talks too."

"I know that!"

"Woooow! She's so big!"

"Uh… Uh…" I stood there, mouth agape, as the huge filolial queen took a step towards the Tyrant Dragon Rex.

"It looks like the Dragon Emperor fragment has puffed you up a little. That's the only way you, a pathetic little lizard, could have grown so big. I don't think it suits you." "

The enormous filolial queen spoke to the dinosaur.

"If you give me the fragment now, I will let you live. Hand it over and go." The Tyrant Dragon Rex lowered its head and roared in response.

Shirou rushed in.

"Shirou!"

"STOP!"

"In the name of the saint, Mark of the dragon!"

An image of the face of a dragon appeared on top of the beast.

The air around the monster began to change, a blade materialized in Shirou's hands.

"This is the truth of Ascalon! Thou art a dragon, a sinful beast! Ascalon!"

He launched his attack.

His attack was of a golden light in the shape of a cross.

A large gash appeared on its body as Shirou's body gave up on him, he might have healed somewhat but this was a bit too much.

He had a large amount of magical power, or Od as he called it, however the rate of recovery he had was rather low.

The huge filolial queen then finished Shirou's job and completely destroyed it, ripping it apart with a kick.

It was so powerful that even a more than half a dozen trees were felled by the ferocity of the air displacement.

The felled Tyrant Dragon Rex lay in bloody strips, and there was something shining among them. It appeared to be some kind of glowing ore. The filolial queen picked it up and then turned to us. "Sorry I kept you waiting."

"…"

We were all speechless.

Not even Filo had been able to deal that much damage to the massive monster, and this huge filolial queen had defeated it so easily! Sure Shirou gave it a huge gash, he didn't surprise me much anymore… but this?

"You're so big…" Melty's eyes were shining as she looked up at the huge bird. She sure did switch moods quickly.

Whenever she spoke to me she bordered on hysterics, but she was polite when she spoke to others, and obsessively fawning when she spoke to Filo or other filolials.

"You must be the Shield Hero." it said.

"Oh… Yeah." When something the size of a building speaks to you, you answer the best you can.

Had we been enemies, well, I don't think I could beat her in a fight… I couldn't see how that would be possible…. Maybe if Shirou didn't overexert himself like he did, he could have pulled out a legendary weapon that could've made it possible.

And if Melty had been right—if we really were enclosed in a force field—then we wouldn't be able to run either.

I even thought about trying to escape on Filo, but if this was a filolial queen, she'd be at least as fast as Filo. There was no escape.

"Do you need something from me?" I asked, doing my best to not be antagonistic.

"I have many things I wish to discuss with you. But it's not polite to speak to you like this. Wait a moment please." The huge filolial queen closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating. As she did she began to shrink. Finally her large wings closed around her body completely.

When she opened them again, there was a young girl standing there, about the same height as Filo, with wings on her back.

Her hair was silver with thin streaks of light blue, and it was cut in a short bob.

But there were three tufts of hair standing up vertically from the crown of her head, like cowlicks.

Her eyes were red, and her gaze carried an air of authority about it.

Her face was small and well-composed. Quite beautiful, really.

She was dressed in a red and white gothic-style dress.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Fitoria, the Queen of the Filolials." She flicked her head and smirked, a rather child-like movement that stood in opposition to the air of power and authority that hung about her.

It's hard to describe, but because she was in human form, I sort of got the impression that she was a small child trying to act like an adult.

"Fitoria?! But that's the name of the filolial in the legends!" Melty was shocked.

"Really?" Shirou asked as he laid on a rolled out sleeping bag.

"Yes. There is a legend saying that Fitoria was raised by four Legendary Heroes in the past… when they were summoned during a wave of destruction."

"The past… Well, I don't know how long ago you are referencing, but she might be the successor?"

I think I remembered that, back when Motoyasu and I were being summoned, they had said something about waves in the ancient past.

If we were talking about something that far back, then she couldn't be the filolial of the legends, could she? It must have been a name that the current leader of the filolials inherited or something.

If not… just how old was this girl?

"My name has always been Fitoria, and there has only ever been one." Fitoria turned her head to the side in confusion while she spoke.

She was very serious and powerful, but occasionally she displayed those very filolial-like moments of animal stupidity.

"Are you saying that you've been alive since ancient times?" Shirou asked.

"Yup." She said it very matter-of-factly. I looked at Filo, then back at Fitoria. I guess I could believe it.

Just think how fast Filo had grown. If Filo had gotten that big, I don't think we'd have been able to feed her though.

We had enough trouble feeding her as it was. I didn't want her getting any bigger. If she got too big to feed than we'd probably have to part ways.

But then I remembered how much money I'd invested in Filo. I couldn't let that go to waste.

"Master, you're thinking of weird stuff." Filo said.

"You're right. That face he's making—it means he's thinking of something unrelated." Raphtalia said.

"You can read him so well. I have no idea." Melty said.

"You'll figure it out." Raphtalia said.

Annoying brats. I wished they would stop trying to figure out what I was thinking.

"You were thinking that if Filo got that big, you'd have to abandon her… weren't you?" Shirou said.

"Boo!"

"Abandon her? How could you think such things?! To think, only minutes ago you'd asked her to try and get bigger!" Melty said enraged.

"Oh relax. How would we feed something that big?!"

"Naofumi-sama… I don't think she would get so large overnight…"

"Sure, but think about how fast she grew to this size. If she had another growth spurt, she might end up like that!" I said.

"…"

"Raphtalia-san! Why aren't you saying anything?" Melty grabbed onto Raphtalia's hands and shouted.

The scary part was that it could really happen. Maybe.

"It would take a long time to grow to that size, so don't worry about it." Fitoria seemed hesitant to intrude, but she raised her hand and answered my concerns. "Normal filolials have fixed life spans of a few decades."

Well, that was a relief. I didn't want her to have a growth spurt and turn into a mountain or something. But then I realized that Fitoria's phrasing implied that she had been alive for much longer.

"Now then, Shield Hero and friends, may I ask you to introduce yourselves?" Well… she was right. If she had given us her name then I guess it was our turn.

"I'm Naofumi Iwatani. Iwatani is my last name, and Naofumi is my first name. It sounds like you already know I'm the Shield Hero."

"Yup."

Fitoria looked to Raphtalia next.

"My name is Raphtalia. Pleased to meet you."

"Pleasure."

"I'm Filo!" Filo didn't wait to be addressed before jumping in.

Fitoria stared at Filo for a moment then directed her gaze to Melty.

"We've met before, haven't we? You love filolials. You protected me then. Thank you for that."

"Yes. My name is Melty Melromarc."

"Okay. I'll call you Mel-tan."

Meltan? She didn't have good taste in nicknames.

Back in my own world, I had a friend that used to add "tan" to everything. That just reminded me of it.

Being an Otaku myself, I was probably in the same category as people that did that though…

"Meltan… Please to formally meet you." See? Even Melty made a weird face when she heard it.

"Boo."

Filo shifted her weight and stepped forward. It almost looked like she was trying to protect Melty from Fitoria.

Was she jealous? She looked like a jealous friend who was mad that their friend was talking to someone else.

"And you, otherworlder? Who are you?" She asked.

Something made me slightly worried, it might need to how she said her question to the imposing pressure she now had.

"I am Emiya Shirou" he said.

"I remember you, when you were traveling using that knight dragon, you seemed odd, your very existence is an irregularity, were you summoned here along the heroes by design or by accident?" She asked.

"I am afraid it was by accident, as I don't possess the knowledge or ability to do such things" Shirou replied.

She nodded and then… "Then why were you rejecting it? The world I mean?" She asked.

**Shirou P.O.V**

She could feel it!

My trump card… it was somehow seen by this bird god.

No, not quite, she knew what I was doing but not what it does.

Reality Marble, the true origin of my meger abilities of my magecraft.

My tracing and alteration and structural grasping were but branches from it.

It was also, paradoxically, my would-be tomb. One that I actively seeked for should the battle warrant the use of it.

My final resting place.

So I decided to tell her an abridged version of this.

"My magic… magecraft to be exact works against the laws of the world, to do so I have to deny certain things in order to make fantasy into reality, in the shape of my weapons." I said as I traced Kanshou and Bakuya.

"Those are indeed strong blades, but you were doing something more weren't you?"

"I needed something bigger, so that is probably what you felt."

This was quite a gamble… I wasn't lying… but I also was not telling the truth either.

Hope my lessons with Rin pay off or else I would have to fight a bird goddess.

There was a tense silence…

**Naofumi P.O.V **

If we all fell silent here, the conversation would take a weird turn. I decided to hurry things along.

"So? Of course I'll thank you for defeating that huge monster, the Tyrant Dragon Rex, for us… but… what can we do for you now?"

"I'll explain the details of it all, but this is not a good place to talk. I'll show you where to go, so please follow me." Fitoria pointed to her carriage. Did she want us to ride in it while she took us somewhere?

"First, we should…"

"Should what?" Fitoria turned her head to the side again.

I looked over at the Tyrant Dragon Rex's corpse.

In response, Fitoria furrowed her brow. "I would rather the Heroes did not use things from dragons to improve their weapons."

Oh that's right, filolials and dragons didn't get along. Apparently the Queen of the Filolials had the same way of thinking about them.

But that had nothing to do with me. I had to do whatever I could to get stronger.

Especially considering how powerful the Tyrant Dragon Rex had been… I couldn't afford to ignore materials like that.

"Too bad."

"Very well then. I'll have my tribe bring it after us then. Please get into the carriage.

"Will you bring the organs too? Filolials sometimes can't control their appetites, and I need more than the bones."

"As you like."

"Thank you."

"Naofumi, you're so petty." Melty said.

"Whatever."

I went over to the shredded Tyrant Dragon Rex and let my shield absorb various parts of its body.

I let it absorb the flesh, bones, scales, horns, fangs, and organs. It unlocked a new shield.

…Or so I thought. Apparently I couldn't completely unlock the shield without reaching a higher level.

Compared to our own strength, the Tyrant Dragon Rex had been much more powerful, so I suppose it only made sense. My level still wasn't high enough to unlock the shield I'd gotten after defeating the Zombie Dragon anyway.

"Are you ready?" Fitoria asked calmly.

"Sure…"

"Okay. And your name was Filo, right? Can you turn into a human and ride with them?"

"I could… but I'd rather pull the carriage."

"That is my carriage, so you can't pull it." I didn't know if she really couldn't let someone else pull it, or if she was childishly rebuffing Filo.

Maybe she really was just like Filo but was pretending to be really important.

"Um…"

"Filo… don't be selfish. Respect what Fitoria says." Shirou said as he patted her head affectionately.

"Okay!" she said with a smile.

Filo calmed down and turned into her human form.

What was with them? Whatever. We all climbed into Fitoria's strangely gorgeous carriage.

The interior was more spacious than I'd expected. But… I guess we were going to start traveling by carriage.

We were surrounded by a vast herd of filolials. If we weren't careful, we'd be spotted soon enough. I guess Fitoria had cast a force field over us though, so that should keep people away.

If Motoyasu realized that I was in the carriage, he'd come chasing after it—no doubt about that.

"Portal…" Fitoria stepped in front of the carriage and took the reins before shouting something.

When she yelled, the scenery around us instantly changed.

"What?"

"Huh?!"

"Wh… What's happening?!"

"W… wow…"

"Haven't seen this since my fight with Medea…"

What the hell? This girl clearly had some impressive powers.

"Did we move?"

Games often provide the player with a magical form of transport that will allow them to teleport to places they have already been. Most famous games seem to have them… I guess they were part of this world too. And yet… If I hadn't heard of it yet, then it must be pretty rare.

The Legendary Filolial… Yeah, maybe she did have reason to claim that title.

"We should be able to talk safely here." We climbed down from the carriage and took in our surroundings. It was dark, which made it hard to pick out much, but we seemed to be in the forest.

Was it some kind of village in the forest? No… Ruins?

It appeared to be a destroyed castle.

There were stones laid out in lines and buried in the dirt, and here and there stone houses poked out of the gloom. Plants had grown over everything, and the size and extent of the root systems meant that these things must have been here for a while.

Further out, and the forest had taken over.

There was a thick white fog over everything, which limited how far we could see. Vines and shrubbery covered everything, as far as I could see. I couldn't discern a way out.

"Where are we?"

"This is the country that the original Heroes fought to protect, or the ruins of it anyway. That's what they say."

"That's a vague answer."

"Well, it's been here since before I was born. I try to watch over it."

"Do you live here, Fitoria?" Melty's eyes were sparkling again.

"About half the time. My real home is… well… I don't take people there."

"Huh…"

"Probably the forest."

"Yup."

"It's so ooooold!"

"You can really feel the history."

"Tell me how you really feel."

Saying it's old, or that you feel the history here… Filo and Raphtalia were apparently really sharing the experience. As for me, the fog was so thick that I really didn't know.

She didn't really "lead" us here, after all. She'd just transported us. How convenient. How were we supposed to get back?

"Hey, since you just transported us here, I was wondering if you could teleport us to a specific place when it's time to leave."

With any luck we could get Motoyasu off our tail for good. Or even better, we could find asylum in the demi-human kingdom without needing to rely on Melty's mother.

"You just got here, and you're asking about how to leave?"

"It doesn't seem like the kind of place we should hang around."

"What?!" Melty shouted in disappointment.

What was that all about? Did she want to hang out with the filolials THAT badly?

I wanted to keep this as short as we could. We were just visiting. That's all.

"For the time being, you should try and get some rest."

Fitoria raised her hand, and a filolial appeared from the fog tugging a carriage loaded down with firewood. She set it on fire, making a large bonfire.

That was a good idea, and we probably didn't need to worry about attracting enemies. The woods didn't seem to be populated by anything more vicious than a filolial.

Since the filolials had invited us here and asked us to rest, there was probably nothing worth worrying about.

Night was falling too. We should probably talk while we rested.

"Okay. It's definitely better to rest here than where we were before. C'mon everyone. Let's rest up." I said.

"Okaaaay!"

"That was a long, tough day."

"Yes, it was… I sure hope that Keel and the others are alright."

"Worrying about it won't help them. If we try to go back to the town they'll catch us for sure."

"Yes…"

We all sat down before the campfire and relaxed.

We had piles of Tyrant Dragon Rex meat, and Shirou and I started to prepare it for dinner.

Luckily enough, the well still seemed to be full of water. I checked to make sure it was safe then decided to prepare a stew.

"Let's get some food in our bellies." I said to Raphtalia and the others as I cooked.

"…"

Filo stuck her index finger into her mouth and stared greedily at the bubbling pot.

There were less of them due to the teleportation, but the surrounding filolials were looking on hungrily as well.

Dammit. It was hard to eat when everyone was staring at you.

"Um… Naofumi?"

"Naofumi-sama. It's hard to eat with everyone looking at us."

"Yeah, me too."

"Huh? You think so?" Raphtalia and Melty felt the same way I did. They cradled their bowls and looked around nervously.

Filo was just greedily slurping down her food without a thought.

"You want some food too?"

"May I?"

"Well, we don't have enough food to feed you at the size you were earlier."

"That's all right."

All I'd done is offer Fitoria some food, but the surrounding filolials started gawking in response.

"Be quiet." All of them fell silent at Fitoria's reproof but they kept staring on with oppressive determination.

"This is delicious!"

"It is."

Ugh. Now Filo was staring at me with that look in her eyes. She and Fitoria were like two peas in a pod.

They were different colors though, so I suppose that was proof they weren't related.

With Melty next to them, they could have all been sisters. They were pretty enough. I could have painted a picture of them.

"Very good."

Raphtalia had better manners than any of them. She was more dignified.

Melty was dignified too, but she shared something with the ravenous filolials that made me want to lump them all together.

"What?" Melty made a face and glared at me.

"Nothing."

"Were you thinking rude thoughts again?" Raphtalia half asked, half stated.

"No comment."

"That means yes, doesn't it?"

"I was thinking that those two make you look a little unrefined. You should pick your friends better."

"What was that?!" There she went again. She could be so noisy.

"Now, now… I was…"

Raphtalia paused in the middle of her sentence to look around at all the filolials. They stared back.

I couldn't ignore them either. I felt like the food was going to get caught in my throat. It was starting to get annoying.

"This is getting so annoying! Can't we just make a really big pot of it? I'll make whatever they want, just bring me some tools!"

Shirou sighed as he traced a huge pot.

In the end, I couldn't endure their incessant stares, so we made a giant pot of soup and let them go at it.

All in all, it took a few hours.

Before they'd all finished eating, Raphtalia, Filo, and Melty had all fallen asleep. I was exhausted from all the cooking.

"Whew…"

I was cleaning up the dishes and complaining to myself about why I had to spend my time feeding a bunch of birds when Fitoria came over to me.

"What do you want? There isn't any left."

"I know that."

"Oh. Okay then. What do you want? Can't it wait until morning?" I wanted to get some rest.

Huh? Melty and Filo were leaning against some fluffy filolials and sleeping soundly.

How convenient. It must be nice to get some sleep while someone else does all the work. She was clearly accustomed to living the royal life.

"I was thinking the same thing. But the timing is right, so I'd like to talk a little."

"What is it?"

"I'd like to know how the sealed monster came to be released."

"Huh? So you came without knowing that?"

"No… I came because I'd been given a report that a new queen candidate had appeared."

"A queen candidate? You mean Filo?"

Fitoria nodded.

"Can I ask you one thing?"

"What?"

It was a suspicion that had been growing on me ever since Filo had hatched.

"Why does Filo grow so differently than other filolials?" Fitoria had said that she was a queen candidate. That's why I thought that she might have known the answer.

"Because she's being raised by a Hero."

I suspected as much. Filo clearly looked different from other filolials, and she could even transform into a person. It was because I was raising her?

"I've answered your question. Now answer mine."

"I don't know how much I can tell you. How much do you know about me?"

"I know that you are a Hero that was summoned here because of the waves. I know that you are considered the religious enemy of Melromarc, a human-supremacist nation."

"Oh…" Had she learned all of that through word-of-mouth from the other filolials?

I didn't know just how well filolials were capable of communicating with one another, but I wouldn't have guessed that they were so good at gathering and transmitting information.

"I'm not all-powerful, you know. I forget things a lot."

"You said it, not me. So anyway…" I explained everything about how the Tyrant Dragon Rex had come to be freed from the sealing stone.

Then I started telling her about myself. I told her how I'd been summoned, then framed and discriminated against. I told her about all the major events that had happened up until now.

"….Whew." Fitoria sighed deeply.

"What?"

"I just get exhausted when I hear of the stupid things the Heroes are occupying themselves with, considering that the waves of destruction are what they should be focusing on."

"It's not me. It's them."

"I don't care about that. I just have to carry out the task entrusted to me by my old master… the Hero."

"Huh…"

"From my perspective, the little fights between humans and demi-humans are irrelevant. The world does not exist just for people. Even still, I cannot stand to see the Heroes quarrel. When the Heroes fight, I can't achieve what my master entrusted to me."

"And what is that?" I guess she meant that a hero from the past had asked her to do on what she'd just said, I guess I couldn't expect Fitoria to intervene in the battle between humans and demi-humans any time soon.

"It sounds like you're saying you don't plan on teaming up, but that you feel like you have to help me because I'm a hero."

"That's right. Both the humans and I are in the midst of a very long conflict. A long time ago I decided not to participate. I decided that I would only associate with my tribe, the filolials."

What would a long-living monster like this filolial think of humans? How would she use them?

For convenience? No—if there was a stronger power, a power they couldn't understand, they'd try to get rid of it.

At first they might try worshiping it or something.

Could it be that she'd grown tired of authority and renounced the world so that she could live with her filolials in the woods? She might pretend to be a normal filolial and just travel around.

Before Melty had fallen asleep, she kept talking about how she'd met Fitoria before. She was clearly very proud of herself.

It sounded like Fitoria was standing back to watch the way that normal filolials interacted with humans—something like that anyway.

"Do the four Holy Heroes know? About the hourglasses? I've been covering the area entrusted to me, but the four Heroes aren't doing their part elsewhere."

"Hourglasses? I know about those."

Yes, Shirou reported to me that in other places there were other dragon era hourglasses, so the wave was not exclusive to Melromarc.

"Then why aren't you participating in the waves?"

What was going on? I was getting a bad feeling. A strong one.

I knew that there were dragon hourglasses in other countries too.

Could it be… Was she saying that waves in other countries came at different times?

"What are you talking about?"

All I knew was that the waves came about once every month.

If they were happening all over the world, I don't think I'd be able to do much about that.

You'd think that the other countries would try to build up their defenses, so that they wouldn't need to depend on the heroes for protection. Oh well.

I assumed that one of the past heroes must have asked Fitoria to see to that.

But now she was upset that the summoned heroes weren't fully devoting their energies to battling the waves?

"I'm not like the other heroes. I may have been summoned here, but I don't know anything about anything. No one explained anything to me. I just found out there were hourglasses in other places the other day."

"Very well. I understand. I have another question."

"What?"

"I feel an ominous power coming from the Shield. Have you used the Curse Series?"

"You sure know your stuff." She really was the stuff of legends. She even knew about the Curse Series. She knew about the Shield of Wrath.

"I understand that the Curse Series is very powerful, but it asks for much in return. Eventually it will consume you. You mustn't use it."

"But there are battles I cannot win without using it. I've been able to control it so far, so I think I'm okay, I also got a boon with another shield that helps me keep a cold head when using it."

It was true. There had been a number of battles that I wouldn't have been able to win if I hadn't used the Shield of Wrath. She was right that it asked for a lot in return, but I figured I'd be all right if I was able to control it.

As long as Raphtalia and Shirou were with me, I should be able to fight off my rage should Svalin was not enough..

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Fitoria reached out and touched my shield. She shut her eyes.

"The cursed Shield will, one day, overpower the Shield Hero's strength. The dragon's consciousness entered the Shield when its core was absorbed. It must not be used near the person that killed a dragon—or the rage will become too powerful to control."

The Shield of Wrath had grown stronger after absorbing the dragon's core. Did that mean that it absorbed the dragon's anger too?

If that was why the shield had grown so powerful, then who was the person that it hated? Who was the person that had killed it?

Could it be Ren? The Sword Hero had killed the dragon.

So what Fitoria was saying was that I shouldn't use the Shield of Wrath when Ren was around? That, if I did, the power would get out of control?

I had fought with Ren recently, but I'd maintained plenty of distance. And Ren hadn't really been trying to fight me anyway.

Was that why nothing had happened? Or could it be that the shield had tried to take over, but it wasn't powerful enough to control me?

"But if I want to survive the battles to come, I might have to use it."

I understood that it was dangerous. But if I wasn't able to protect people without using it, then what choice did I have?

After the waves ended and the world was restored to peace, I planned on going back to my own world.

It was easy to say that the shield was dangerous and that I shouldn't use it—but there were times when I had no choice.

"Very well. Allow me to change the subject."

"It doesn't look like you agree with me."

She nodded. I guess she didn't agree but was ready to move the conversation to the next topic.

"The world is in great turmoil because of the waves. Why are the Heroes fighting among themselves?"

"It's not my fault. It's them—and the country. They framed me and are discriminating against me."

"I've heard the basics. They are irrelevant. The Heroes do not have time to spend on such trivial matters."

"Such high ideals."

"I've been charged with the protection of the world. But I cannot do it alone. I cannot do it without the Heroes."

After all the power she'd just showed off? Was she sure she couldn't save the world from the waves?

From what I'd seen, she was already much more powerful than Itsuki, Ren, or Motoyasu.

She still wasn't powerful enough to save the world.

Or maybe she was saying that she wouldn't be able to do so forever.

Did that mean that the heroes could still become much more powerful? More powerful than she already was?

I guess they were still heroes, even if they were rotten to the core. If the heroes weren't inherently useful, I suppose these countries wouldn't go through all the trouble of summoning them from another world.

"Honestly, the affairs of humans do not concern me. How they fight… what they fight… But the Heroes are different."

"Why?"

Fitoria silently shook her head. "It happened… so long ago, so long ago that I can't really remember. All I remember is that I cannot permit the Heroes to fight among themselves."

She forgot the very thing she is so upset about?

Well, she was a filolial, after all. I couldn't expect her to be some kind of genius with a photographic memory. Just look at Filo.

But she still remembered it. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something felt very wrong.

I had felt a strange pressure coming from Fitoria for a little while.

It was then from behind her Shirou appeared with the ying yang swords and had them like scissors on her neck.

"If you try to harm him… I will kill you," Shirou said.

His eyes were hard and cold, I had never seen that look on him.

Fitoria stifled up when he heard his voice and noted the blades on her neck.

"I have heard enough, he did not ask to be a hero, he was taken against his will to fight a battle not his own, being ridiculed, framed for a crime he did not commit, and the government had attempted to cripple his growth, and yet you have the audacity to say those things? There is a limit to the amount of foolishness and selfishness I can tolerate." Shirou said as his blades began to dig deeper.

"You would damn the world to protect a single person?" Fitoria asked.

**Shirou P.O.V **

That question…

Damn the world for the sake of another.

The me that I have become would not, however…

_"I will not allow Sakura to die!"_

Being swallowed by the curses of the Grail mud and being reborn in a new body made by Aozaki.

"No… I would do it for a friend" I said. "This is not our world, nor is this his fight, whether he fights or not is up to him, yet you expect him to fight without an incentive and threaten him with death should he not comply, what a contemptible creature you are."

The girl sighed. "I suppose I earned this talk to, you are indeed correct, however my mission has not changed in the slightest, if need to, I will simply remove you."

"Then how about a compromise?" I asked.

She tilted her head sideways.

Well she understood the precarious situation she was in.

You see, Kanshou and Bakuya had anti-monsters properties, for all the talk of her being a bird God, she was a filolial, ergo a monster.

"You said you believe him to not be qualified, that the other heroes should work in harmony, then how about a test?" I offered.

"A test, yes I see…" she said pondering on it. "Very well, I have decided… the test will be held tomorrow, rest easy, nothing shall harm you" she said as she disappeared into the fog.

"Are you sure this was such a good idea?" Naofumi asked.

"We are not dead… right?" I said.

"For now… we don't know what that loon will think of" Naofumi said worried.

"I can make an educated guess." I said.

Naofumi glanced at me, as though suggesting I continue. "She said she was looking for the filolial queen candidate right?" I said.

I could see the exact moment in Naofumi's eyes when he realized that the test they would be put through was a test of how he raised Filo.

Everyone's lives now rested on Filo's shoulders.

"Damn it!" Naofumi growled.

Meanwhile, I began making preparations in the event Filo failed. While her skills are great, she will be put up against a trial set by a royal beast. And when the alternative is fighting a murderous bird god unprepared, my confidence in Filo will just have to be set aside.

**The next morning **

**Naofumi P.O.V **

Shirou had woken up earlier than us

He was using some of his rations to make some breakfast, long with so.e rice and the like… he made a rather hearty breakfast, Fitoria and Filo ate enough to satiate them and with the leftover dragon meat he made something like karaage for the herd.

Fitoria was talking to Melty, about old stories of the heroes and her own adventures. It was then when it happened.

I figured that Fitoria was probably powerful enough to teleport us all to wherever the queen was. I'd have to find a way to convince her to help us though.

"Okay… now then." Fitoria rose to her feet and began to cast a spell on Melty. The wind rose and formed a sort of cage around her.

"Wh…what is this?!" Melty grabbed the bars and tried to escape, but they were sharp and cut her hand. A little blood trickled over her finger.

"What are you doing?!" Filo glared angrily at Fitoria.

"Mel-tan, you'll have to be my hostage for now."

"Why?"

"…" Fitoria didn't answer but continued to glare at us. The air was crackling with tension.

Was this… Was this the continuation of what she'd been talking about last night? Was she going to kill us… and then go kill the other heroes too? We should probably assume so. "Wait… could this be part of the test?"

"Melty!" Raphtalia shouted for Melty.

Damn… did we have to fight that giant filolial here? I couldn't imagine a way that we could win.

The area was filled with a threatening atmosphere, but it wasn't coming from me.

What choice did I have but to use the Shield of Rage?

"You mustn't use the cursed power."

Light appeared around my shield.

—**Due to interference, the shield may not be changed. **

…Appeared in my field of vision. It was the same thing that had occurred the day before.

"Please listen to me."

"Why should I listen to someone behaving as you are?"

"If you refuse to listen, I'll have no choice but to kill the rest of the Heroes."

Shirou then laughed, "You are using the wrong way to threaten him, he has no love for the other 3, they left him out to dry, remember? You would be doing him a _favor_."

Fitoria blinked owlishly.

She looked to the side as if embarrassed.

"Very well then…"

Fitoria raised her index finger and leveled it at Filo.

"Then I demand a duel with the filolial you raised. If she is strong enough then I will release Melty, and offer you a postponement."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll figure it out."

What did she want from me?

"I will battle in my current form. Filo, I ask that you also fight me in this form."

They had to fight in human form? Filo might stand a chance after all… considering the combat training she took with Shirou and the fact that she had been diligently practicing ever since had made her much more skilled.

Had they fought in their true forms, Filo didn't stand a chance. But if they were both humans, maybe Filo could win. Luckily enough, we had a weapon that Filo could use when she was in human form.

"Okay!" Filo reached behind the wings on her back and produced the power gloves.

The old guy who ran the weapon shop had originally made them for me so that I could pull the carriage if I needed to. But Filo's magic had turned them into something more like claws. They'd served us well the last time we'd gotten into a scuffle with Motoyasu. And yet…

"Hey! Don't just start whenever you want."

"Yes, Filo. You should do as Naofumi-sama says."

"But Mel…!"

"If you don't fight, then everyone will die. We don't really have a choice."

"Damn…"

"Filo, come here" Shirou called her.

"Uhmmm? What is it uncle Shirou?" She asked.

"Let me see your gauntlets" he said.

She raised her hands up to him.

"Trace… on. Structural analysis, reinforcement… trace off", he patted her on the head and smiled. "Use everything I taught you, ok? Don't hold back."

"UMU! I will uncle Shirou!" she exclaimed before getting serious.

**Filo P.O.V **

I dashed out at full speed towards Fitoria, who was not expecting my speed to be quite that.

I opened up by trying to deliver a powerful blow with my knees to her stomach, she jumped over and used it to propel herself up.

I quickly dashed half a step as she landed, continuing to attack her with my knees, her hands looked a bit red as I continued.

It was when she threw a powerful kick.

I quickly dropped on all fours, and when she noticed that she had missed I put my hands on the ground and quickly spun, delivering many kicks, she grunted as she blocked the final one that was to hit her on the base of the neck. Uncle Shirou told me that if you want to end a fight fast, that would be the best place to attack.

Fitoria then attacked me, she used her magic to create claws that ripped my clothes a bit… that made me mad!

"Hey! This cost Filo a lot of work!" I said as I jumped high.

I tensed my toes and enveloped my feet with wind magic.

"Kaze Hakyuku!"

Like a powerful beak, each of my kicks was strong enough to render even armor.

Fitoria winced in pain

"HAAAAA!" I continued for over 20 kicks and when the final one came I used it to make distance between us

She was looking at me seriously now, she was looking at my legs now.

"_Show the enemy an attack that they can't ignore, but make sure it is not your strongest card… when they least expect it, use it to deliver to most devastating blow to end the fight_"

That was what uncle Shirou said and I decided to follow it.

She was blocking my kicks before I was able to fully extend my legs, decreasing it's damage output, as she landed a few solid hits on me. I gasped for air as a few got me good.

We were both running out of stamina and we both looked like something a cat dragged in… or rather like we all looked like after training with uncle Shirou.

We exchanged attacks as we were all over the place, moving so fast that Raphtalia-oneechan's skirt flipped a bit.

Uncle Shirou and Naofumi-sama had to defend onee-chan as our running around and hitting each other caused shockwaves.

I got a punch on her face, she got a punch on mine, I got a hit on her shoulder and she on my chest.

Our attacks made a lot of loud noises and a few trees got blown away.

I was certain of something…. This is not her full power.

She then got suuuuper close to me as to not let me use my legs to full power.

"Caught you!" I said with a smirk.

My fist was on her chest, then collected all the wind magic on my elbow and pushed it with it as fast as I could. It was like a drill.

"_Don't think about hitting her chest, but way further, deeper, further!"_

The attack connected!

Fitoria was send flying back a couple yards, some spit flew out as she rolled on the ground, her breathing hard due to the hit being in a place called the diaphragmnu? It was a hard word.

Anyways I rushed up to her and landed the last blow right next to her head.

She rolled back and stood up, she looked a bit dizzy as she held her chest.

She sighed in resignation.

**Naofumi P.O.V **

"Do you understand? The test is over." Fitoria said.

"Test?" Filo asked quizzically.

"Just a little one. I have my own situations to deal with also."

"Oh yeah?" Filo didn't immediately trust her but turned her head to the side as she listened to Fitoria.

They'd just been locked in battle, but all the tension seemed to have evaporated.

"Filo, she was just testing you." Raphtalia and I walked closer and tried to explain.

"Yes… It was a test. But I did truly intend to do as I'd said if she didn't come through." Fitoria explained simply.

I didn't know why she felt like she had to do this. But, because of the fight with Fitoria, Filo had learned some great experience for fighting in human form.

"Filo, you have to think about your opponent. If you fight against humans when you are in filolial form, it's like fighting with a giant target on your back." Shirou said as he patted her gently, he laughed and looked at him.

"Really?"

It was true that Filo was very large in her filolial form. Even if she could move very quickly, it made for a bigger target when facing a powerful enemy.

Also, when she fought in her filolial form she basically had to make all of her attacks into kicks.

It wasn't that she couldn't use magic or rush attacks, but it would be best to think about what kind of opponent she was facing. Fitoria was trying to get Filo to notice that there were other ways to fight.

It would be useful to switch tactics in the middle of a fight anyway. It could confuse the enemy.

So basically, Fitoria told Filo that she should stay flexible about her options—and she taught her some new moves.

"This is proof that you have passed my test." Fitoria said, and pulled out a tiara. She gave it to Filo.

"What? What's this?"

"It's your reward for passing my test. Now lower your head."

"Filo, you're supposed to go like this." Melty grabbed Filo's sleeve and pulled her down into a bow.

Would you look at that? Melty was acting very princess-like for a change.

"Like this?"

"Yes, that's it."

Filo was bowing before Fitoria, who placed the tiara on her head.

"Filo, you will be my heir."

"What's that?"

"It means that you will be the next great Queen of the Filolials."

"Oh…"

"Filo! Good for you!" Melty was so excited. She jumped up and down. Filo didn't seem so excited herself.

Suddenly the tiara on Filo's head twinkled and shined. It sent light out in all directions, and then…

Ping! A single cowlick appeared on Filo's head. One strand of hair stuck straight up.

"…" Raphtalia and I were both silent. Was that some kind of prize?

"Huh?"

"Filo! You're so cute!" Melty was very excited and was practically dancing in place… But Filo didn't seem to understand what was happening.

Melty hadn't noticed.

Wait a second. I considered myself a real Otaku. Did that mean I was supposed to get excited by this cowlick?

Nope… I wasn't feeling it.

"What happened?" Firo asked

"Well…" I pointed to Filo's head, and Filo herself followed my gaze. She reached up and…

"What's that? There's something weird on my head!" Filo screamed and nearly jumped. She grabbed the clump of hair and…

Rip!

"Wh?!" She pulled it right off.

Filo was really something. It looked like it must have really hurt.

"Ouch!" It must have hurt, but Filo seemed proud of herself for getting rid of it.

**Boing!**

But after she'd torn it off, another strand of hair popped up to take its place.

"Another one?!"

"What?!" Filo's eyes filled with tears as, time and time again, she ripped the cowlicks off of her head. A new one always popped up to take its place though, and so she eventually gave up and hung her head.

It was a weird little cowlick,

"It'll only keep growing back, so you'd better give up. The more you grow, the more cowlicks you'll have."

"What? But I don't want…" Filo was looking at the cowlicks on Fitoria's head.

What did the Legendary Filolial have in mind by giving something like that to Filo? I decided to have a look at Filo's status screen.

Her stats had improved. It seemed like the tiara had conferred some abilities and status improvements.

Considering that, for the time being anyway, Filo had maxed out her level up potential, it was a good reward.

"And for the Shield Hero…"

"Huh? I get something too?" Fitoria pointed in my direction, then curled her finger up and beckoned for me to come over.

Wait a second. If I walked over there, was she going to give me cowlicks too?

"I don't need a new hairstyle."

"Hairstyle?" I didn't explain further. It would only cause a fuss if I did.

"It's better than that. And it will heal your wounds."

"Well, then…" I didn't know what she was going to give me, but I hoped it wasn't anything too weird.

I probably couldn't have refused anyway, so I walked over to her. She reached out and touched my torso, healing my wounds. I hadn't been able to completely heal them, so there had been a dull pain in the area. She took the pain away.

"Show me your shield." She pointed to the shield and motioned for me to hold it up.

"Like this?" I held the shield up. Fitoria pulled out her cowlick and held it up to the center of the shield. The shield immediately reacted and absorbed the hair.

**Filolial Series Forcibly Unlocked!**

"Forcibly unlocked?"

I checked the tree, and there was a "Filolial Shield" glowing on it.

It had a bunch of equip bonuses that all seemed to benefit filolials, like power and growth adjustment (large, medium, small), detailed growth stat adjustment (large, medium, small), and others.

One that immediately jumped out at me was called Ability While Riding (large, medium, small). It must have meant that Filo would fight better with someone riding on her back.

Still, my level wasn't high enough to use most of the shield's abilities. Luckily the shield was unlocked, so if I just met the requirements I'd be able to use its powers.

It looked like the requirements had been met to unlock any shield related to filolials.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome. However I still have something I would like to discuss with you."

"What's that?"

"I'd rather talk in private." This was becoming a rather strange reward.

Hey—did this mean that all of the filolial's powers were concentrated into those cowlicks?

Filo couldn't level up anymore, at least for now. So I suppose it was a good thing.

"Um… Uh…" Melty was hesitant, and somewhat embarrassed to speak to Fitoria.

"What?"

"That was just to test Filo, right? You weren't…using me?"

"Of course not. Isn't there anything you want, Meltan?"

"Um… Can you become a really big filolial and let me ride on your head?" Oddly engaged and passionate, Melty made her request.

"…Very well." Fitoria seemed a little put out, but as she patted Melty on the head, she started to grow larger.

Then she smiled deeply.

"Wow…" Then, just as she'd promised, she set Melty onto her head.

"It's so high up here!" Melty was very excited.

"Shield Hero, please back up a little."

"Okay." I stepped back as I was asked.

And… Fitoria soon grew to be about eighteen meters tall. Just how big could she get? She was like a building.

"Wow! Wow!" Melty's voice came down on the wind. Was it okay to take her so far from the ground?

But seriously, just how big could she get?

Or maybe that was her real size, and she had just transformed to match our size.

"Wow…" Melty seemed very relaxed.

"It's like a dream…"

"Too bad it's not." Filo was powerful enough to defeat a dragon, and that girl had used her like a toy… that wasn't a good sign.

"Now then. The day has only just started. I'd like for you all to get a little more rest."

"Sure—if you'll take us to where we want to go later."

"We'll talk about that later. For the time being, just try to relax. My friends here also extend their greetings."

"GAHHH!"

"What? Celebrate the birth of a new queen? You mean me?"

"Congratulations Filo! Ah, ha, ha! Look how happy the filolials are!" The other filolials all crowded around Filo and lifted her up.

"M…Me?" They had picked up Raphtalia as well.

What was going on? We were suddenly very popular.

We spent the rest of the day with the filolials. It was a festival-like atmosphere. Shirou was on the side making meals for all.

So there we were in seclusion. But once we left, how long would it be until the rest of the world believed in us too?

Chapter End


End file.
